All francization teaching positions for adults at the Integrated Regional Training Center (CRIF) have been abolished following recent budgetary restrictions.
These are 21 teaching jobs, 19 part-time and two full-time.
“As is the case in the majority of school service centers in Quebec, the budgets allocated for 2024-2025 in francization, for general adult education, unfortunately do not allow the continuation of this service offering that meets the standards. admission requests that we have at the Integrated Regional Training Center,” indicates the general director of Val-des-Cerfs, Carl Morissette.
The last French course at CRIF for this school year will be given on November 8. Val-des-Cerfs does not know if training will be able to resume in 2025-2026, but it is not excluded.
The general director of the Val-des-Cerfs school service center, Carl Morissette. (Alain Dion/La Voix de l’Est Archives)
Carl Morissette admits to having been “surprised” by this situation since the number of courses given at CRIF has been growing for several years.
Quebec is now allocating funding based on attendance data from 2020-2021, a pandemic year when few people followed on-site training.
“I don’t know what the parameters will be for 2025-2026,” says Mr. Morissette.
The affected teachers, who learned the news last Wednesday, could be assigned elsewhere in the school service center.
The Integrated Regional Training Center, in Granby. (Archives La Voix de l’Est)
“We think we can replace several of them,” said the CEO of Val-des-Cerfs. But there were also some who were retirees; These people are not really interested in going to primary or secondary school.”
As for the approximately 300 students who were taking courses at CRIF, they are redirected to the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration of Quebec so that they “continue, as soon as possible, their francization courses”.
“We have postponed stopping classes as much as possible so that those who have an evaluation very soon can complete it and possibly complete their current level, if applicable,” says Carl Morissette.
SERY in the same situation
However, even organizations that have agreements with the Ministry of Immigration to offer francization courses, such as Solidarité ethnic régional de la Yamaska (SERY), have to deal with reduced funding.
The general director of Regional Ethnic Solidarity of Yamaska, Frey Guevara. (Catherine Trudeau/La Voix de l’Est)
“We usually welcome full-time groups in two of our premises, but here, our premises are empty,” laments general manager Frey Guevara.
Now, training is mainly given online. But as allophones are obviously not very comfortable in French and often also in computers, “it’s difficult for them,” says Mr. Guevara.
Consequently, of the approximately 300 people currently registered, only 82 have started the training. And under the law, new residents have six months to learn French.
“They demand their right to be Frenchified, but they do not have this access,” says Frey Guevara.
“We should not restrict francization training for newcomers. We must see immigration not just for its humanitarian nature, but as an economic solution. They come here to work and businesses need them. They are taxpayers like the rest of us. The entire immigrant community is affected by this.”
The president of the Haute-Yamaska Education Union, Sophie Veilleux. (Alain Dion/La Voix de l’Est Archives)
An opinion shared by the president of the Haute-Yamaska Education Union, Sophie Veilleux.
“We are going to escape people who were making efforts to learn French, it’s absurd,” she said. These are adults, parents who could then help their children with their homework.
Ms. Veilleux is, however, delighted that Val-des-Cerfs has shown “openness” to retain the affected teachers.
