Quebec’s arduous task of marshalling enough teachers for the upcoming academic year is not the province’s sole staffing predicament. Its public service union, Fédération des employées et employés de services publics, highlights an equally troubling dearth of essential supporting roles such as secretaries, special education technicians, and after-school care providers.
The union alerted the public to a disturbing spike in vacancies – particularly critical is the shortage of educators providing childcare beyond school hours. Approximately 230 positions remain unfilled at the Montreal service centre. In the Laurentians’ Mille-Îles service centre, the vacancy number swells to 405, while the Chemin-du-Roy centre in the Mauricie region reports 136 open positions.
The union warns that this grave shortfall could result in staff members having to supervise 30 to 40 children simultaneously. As consequences roll forward, schools may have to ration their services or observe a reduction. The envisioned scenario, as Annie Charland, president of the union’s school sector, suggests, deviates from the ideal of one worker per 20 students. According to Charland, staff could face critical overwork due to the imbalance.
Frédéric Brun, the union’s vice president, illuminates another facet of pain stemming from the teacher shortage, compounded as numerous special education technicians are pulled from their specialised function to fill roles at the classroom’s helm. “We are not simply dealing with personnel shortage; we’re also wrestling with an acute deficiency in services for students with special needs – those experiencing difficulties,” Brun reveals.
Last week, Quebec’s education minister announced a gaping hole in the teacher numbers, with at least 8,558 teaching positions yet to be filled, including 1,859 full-time roles and 6,699 part-time engagements. Despite enthusiastic recruitment efforts, Education Minister Bernard Drainville concedes Quebec’s continued dependence on ‘not legally qualified’ personnel – those without formal teaching certifications or degrees – to teach Quebec’s students.
Simultaneously, the union raises concerns over an increasing number of support staff exiting from the system in recent years. These include 400 individuals at the Montreal service centre and over 175 at Mille-Îles. The mounting exodus, as Charland points out, is drawing seasoned professionals away due to the untenable working conditions. “These are individuals with two to three decades of seniority who find the current setup unsustainable,” she notes.
Taken together, Brun delineates support staff as some of the least remunerated public sector workers with roles often poorly defined. Both leaders emphatically urge improvements in remuneration and working conditions as pivotal steps to attract and maintain a suitably staffed community of dedicated professionals.
