A new campaign to recruit more teachers launched by Quebec

The Ministry of Education is launching a new campaign on Monday which aims to promote the teaching profession.

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Developed at a cost of $1.5 million, it is divided into three components, namely an advertising campaign, testimonials from teachers and humorous videos on social networks.

In the ad, we can see students sitting behind desks in a classroom. They lift the top of the desk to take out a notebook, but when they close it, adults, dressed in different work uniforms, take their place.

“To close the desk, then to have the adult appear to highlight the importance that a teacher can have on your career, I find that brilliant,” comments the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, in an interview with TVA News.

“She says to a young person: ‘You can change a child’s life,’” he adds.

A lauded campaign, but…

This government initiative is welcomed by the Federation of Education Unions, which nevertheless emphasizes that other efforts must be made to ensure good working conditions for teachers.

“What we need to do is give the best CEGEP students the desire to come to the faculties of education to come and teach in our classes. And for that, we must send positive messages, and positive messages are not only communications, they are also concrete actions in the communities,” says Richard Bergevin, president of the FSE-CSQ.

The campaign is also welcomed by a teacher from the greater Montreal region, Simon Landry, who however expresses some reservations.

“It comes with a kind of contradiction where we want to revalorize a profession, on the one hand, but at the same time, on the other hand, to counter a shortage of teachers, we are ready to hire essentially anyone, and we say, an adult will do the trick,” he says.

Bernard Drainville admits that there is work to be done to revalorize the teaching profession in Quebec and that an advertising campaign is not the only option.

“Yes, there are challenges in education, we still see it in the news, but there is also very good progress. And that’s the goal of the campaign, it’s to emphasize the positive, because there are positives in education,” he declares.

The minister did not want to specify the number of new teachers he wishes to recruit with this eight-week campaign.