“This morning, I spoke to the director of the CPE who is in a way the lighthouse of the daycare. She cried… ”
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
It was a mother who wrote to me at the end of November last November. Her name is Magalie Huot, the CPE in question is called Boisé Vimont, it is in Laval. Mme Huot wanted to praise me this CPE, the educators, the atmosphere, in short, everything.
Magalie Huot volunteers. She wraps books given as a gift to children, hangs Halloween decorations, that kind of thing.
She wrote to me to tell me that the shortage of educators was a headache for the director. The replacement CV bank is empty, the agencies that offer educators ready to replace the absent no longer have candidates.
“My 3 -year -old daughter has had five educators since the start of the year,” wrote Mr.me HUOT. The reasons mentioned: sick leave and resignations… ”
She asked me, “Could it be possible to come and visit the CPE and talk about it in the newspaper? »»
I went to visit the Vimont wooded CPE.
Nathalie Fortier expected me, she showed me around the CPE. Mme Huot was there. A beautiful CPE was nap time, the children slept or pretended to sleep. Everything was calm.
When I said to Mme Fortier than mme Huot told me that she had cried in front of the headache, the director seemed a little embarrassed, I guessed pride access. She did not deny.
It has become a headache, she explained to me. Previously, there were occasional absences and stations to be filled, of course. But there were always educators. Otherwise, at worst, there were agencies which, as for the nurses, send you replacements, at gold prices.
Photo Marco Campanozzi, the presses
Nathalie Fortier, Director of the Woody CPE Vimont
There, the CV bank is empty. There are mornings where I have to train groups with the educators present. There are mornings where I have to ask parents if they can keep children that day …
Nathalie Fortier, Director of the Woody CPE Vimont
Obviously, all this weighs on the educators who are at the post. Obviously, all this pushes educators to wonder if they could not go to work elsewhere, at the restaurant, at Costco…
Did I say that several mornings, for Mme Fortier, is it as if the hours are a headache? After listening to it, I am the image: it’s like doing a headache with one hand playing Tetris of the other with a ball in the stomach, the ball being the stress of having to call Parents to say: “We cannot take your child today …”
Another might not care. Unfortunately (for them), CPE directors have the reputation of taking their job (see children’s well-being) at heart.
So it stresses mme Fortier on a daily basis.
Hence the tears of the director mentioned by Mme Huot in his email …
“I go to the south for a few days, I have to rest,” said Nathalie Fortier.
-It was in November, long before the strike of unionized educators at the CSN who paralyzed 400 CPE – including the woodwood Vimont – Thursday1.
She made me do the establishment. I jased with some educators. When I told you about leaving the CPE for Costco, it was not just an image (and I specify that there is nothing wrong with working at Costco), that’s exactly what told an educator: his brother works at Costco, he earns more than she, without stress, therefore gives him ideas of resignation …
I know, stress is not reserved for educators in CPE. But taking care of children is never having respite. We cuddle them, we get rid of them, we watch them, we play them.
They are also educated, hence the term “educators”. They don’t just “keep” the little ones. That, they all told me: we are not “only” of the guards.
There are educational programs standardized by the Ministry of Family, children with special needs in groups, differentiated interventions. It is necessary to take notes to fill the educational portraits, these reports sent to parents, every day, to tell the day of children, adapt the activities to maximize the potential of the little ones …
All that to start $ 20 per hour.
I am not saying that they work at the peak and the shovel in a charcoal mine. I say there is a way to win $ 20 per hour at the bottom of the scale in a much less stressful way.
In fact, it’s not just me who says that, it is not only the educators, it is not only the union. These are the statistics, the cold and also relentless figures. On November 19, - headlined “From CPE to Costco: 4,000 educators left their job last year2 ». Only 4 % of them are retired.
The attraction of Costco is not reserved for this educator of the CPE Boisé Vimont which I told you about, a director of CPE said that she too has lost educators parties to work for the famous high -area store …
I draw this info from the - report: at the top of the salary scale, a costco cashier will earn $ 32.50; The educator at the top of the salary scale, if she is qualified: $ 30.
I know, I know. The state is without the penny, the deficit is 11 billion, it is called to inflate, the needs are unlimited and our resources are limited. I know.
I just say that even the recruitment of future educators announces an upcoming disaster: the CEGEPs are struggling to fulfill their classes and to put diplomas.
From the fall of the fall 2021 to the Cégep de Sainte-Foy, 13 out of 82 finished the technical education program for childhood in winter 20243.
And that’s like that everywhere in Quebec.
So there is the fate of the educators, who are many to go to work elsewhere, where it is more paying.
The other case is that the less we will have educators in CPE, the more parents will have to keep their children and explain to the boss that, sorry, today, I cannot go back to work …
I am neither an accountant nor an economic minister, but it seems to me that this desertion does not bode well for the productivity of Quebecers.
1. Read “strike in 400 CPE:” you have to give a stroke “”
2. Read “From CPE to Costco: 4000 educators left their profession, last year”
3. Read “students desert the training of educator in early childhood”
