Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville attempted to reassure parents Wednesday as he confirmed that the province is still missing thousands of teachers just days before the start of the school year.
Despite what the minister described at a news conference as a "big challenge," he said the government's goal is to ensure no classrooms are forced to close for lack of teachers.
The minister noted there were at least 8,558 vacant teaching positions — 1,859 full-time and 6,699 part-time — in the province as of last week, more than three thousand more than the official, though possibly incomplete, number at the same time last year.
"I was a parent. I know what back-to-school is like. It's stressful," Drainville said. "It's even more so when you ask yourself, 'will my child have a teacher in their classroom?'"
"We're working very, very hard to ensure that we fill as many positions as possible between now and the start of the school year."
He insisted he is optimistic despite the immense staffing shortage, pointing to the province's ability last year to fill most of the more than 5,000 open teaching positions that remained in the weeks before the school year started.
"The next few weeks will be decisive," he said. "But if I look at … the tendencies of the past, we should be alright."
Drainville admitted, however, that Quebec will have to continue to rely on what he called "not legally qualified" individuals — who don't have teaching certificates or degrees — to fill classrooms. He said his goal is to have at least "one adult" in every classroom by the time schools reopen next week.
Currently, the minister explained, the province's annual output of around 3,000 education program graduates is simply not enough to make up for the roughly 3,000 annual retirements and 1,000 early departures during the school year.
Labour leaders have attributed that attrition to teachers' mounting workloads, due in part to a lack of resources to help manage a high proportion of students who have difficulty learning, they say.
Efforts are underway to relieve the pressure on teachers and make teaching more attractive, Drainville said, including through a pilot program placing additional assistants in 100 schools, higher starting salaries and scholarships of $5,000 per year for students in education programs.
Commenting on the teacher shortage Wednesday, Premier François Legault said there was no magic solution to fix the problem because it takes years for those students to finish their degrees and enter the workforce.
He recognized the stress teachers face in the classroom and issued an appeal to existing educators to "not give up" despite the challenges plaguing the education system.
"In 2023, teaching a class of children where 30, 40 per cent have learning difficulties is hard, it's discouraging," the premier acknowledged. "And there are teachers who after a few years say, 'it's not for me.'"
"So there's a challenge."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2023.
— By Thomas MacDonald in Montreal.
The Canadian Press
