No grade in French on his report card due to teacher shortage

While the number of vacant teaching positions is on the rise again in the school network, two groups of fourth secondary students from a school in the Laurentians do not have results in French in their first stage report card due to of the shortage of teachers.

Ludivine Eono, the mother of a student at Liberté-Jeunesse secondary school, deplores the situation. In her daughter’s report card that she received in recent days, French skills are “not assessed.” “Given the impossibility of having a teacher dedicated to this group, students will be evaluated at the second and third stages,” we can read.

“It penalizes the students and that concerns me,” says M.^me Eono. French is still a very important subject. This is not normal.”

At the Mille-Îles school service center, however, we are assured that the situation is “under control”. The departure of the teacher who was in post at the start of the year led to a succession of substitutes for a short period of about two weeks, but a new teacher has recently been in post, indicates communications advisor Mélanie Poirier.

Contrary to what is indicated in the bulletin, “a result will be displayed later in step one,” she specifies.

Not an isolated case

For M^me Eono, however, this is not a surprise. Her daughter had not been assessed as part of the course Ethics and religious culture in one of his secondary school report cards and the same scenario was repeated in dramatic arts last year.

The Quebec Association of School Management Personnel confirms that this is not an isolated case. Third secondary students in Montérégie were not evaluated in science at the first stage, in particular.

“We have a few schools where certain students will not have results on the first report card. The parents concerned have been informed of the situation,” indicates its president, Carl Ouellet.

In some cases, these are teachers who went on sick leave who could not be replaced or who were replaced by people who are not able to evaluate the students, specifies Mr. Ouellet.

“It’s very worrying,” he adds. We will have to find solutions quickly, but the problem is that we don’t have any solutions. […] There are no people.”

At the Fédération québécoise des directions d’establishment d’enseignement, we are not very surprised by this situation, considering the number of vacant positions on the rise in the school network (see other text below).

However, it is more surprising to find this type of situation in a math or French course, since the efforts to fill positions in basic subjects are usually greater, indicates its president, Nicolas Prévost.

The Mille-Îles School Service Center ensures that the students were still able to learn during the period when the substitutes took turns, thanks to the collaboration of the other French teachers at the school.

The replacement who took charge of these two groups a little over a week ago, however, does not have her teaching certificate.

Teaching: the number of vacant positions is on the rise again

After experiencing a sustained decline in the weeks following the start of the school year, the number of vacant teaching positions started to rise again over the last month.

The Ministry of Education now reports 1,461 teaching positions to be filled in Quebec public schools, or 1.4% of the total number of positions, according to the most recent report made public recently in the government dashboard dated 13 november.

At the beginning of October, there were instead 1,312 teaching vacancies (1.3%).

This is an increase which is not surprising, since the scenario repeats itself every fall: after a few weeks, teachers go on sick leave or drop out, explains Nicolas Prévost, president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d’education. educational establishment.

“It was predictable,” he says.

Worse among professionals

The proportion of vacant positions is, however, much greater in the ranks of support staff (4.8%) and professionals, such as psychologists, speech therapists and psychoeducators, while 12% of these jobs have not found takers. , a proportion which is also increasing.

“For professionals, it’s truly catastrophic,” says Mr. Prévost, who recalls that the shortage remains “the number one issue” for school administrators.

The lack of supervisory staff also has an impact on the climate and the feeling of security at school, which worries families, says Mélanie Laviolette, president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec.

“This is where we see where there are shortcomings and it is felt a little more. We are going to talk about a deterioration of the climate in general, both in terms of incivility and violent and intimidating behavior,” she says.