Students are deserting early childhood educator training

Recruiting qualified educators to early childhood centers (CPE) is increasingly difficult for the Legault government. Despite the granting of scholarships, registrations have decreased in the CEGEP study program and new data, obtained by -, show that the number of dropouts explodes during training.

At the Cégep de Sainte-Foy, out of 82 students registered in fall 2021 in DEC – Childhood education techniques, only 13 obtained their diploma in winter 2024. At the Cégep de l’Outaouais: 6 out of 40 and at the Cégep de Valleyfield: 1 out of 25.

Some students complete the program in more than three years, but this does not prevent teachers from noticing an abnormally high number of dropouts.

We can say that it is a third of the students who remain and who complete the technique. So if we have 60 registrations, it is very rare that we have more than 20 students who will finishexplains the treasurer of the Association of Teachers in Childhood Education Techniques (AEETEE) of Quebec, Mélanie Rousseau.

Normally, the average student graduation rate is 64%, indicates the Fédération des cégeps.

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Several CEGEPs specify that many students complete their DEC in more than three years. The average is 3.9 years, according to the Fédération des cégeps.

However, dropouts remain numerous, even taking into account those who continue. At Cégep Marie-Victorin, for example, 9 students enrolled in 2021 should graduate after four years. This will bring the total number of graduates to 23 out of 51 initially enrolled.

At CEGEP Gaspésie et des Îles, the program is even suspended lack of sufficient number of admission applications.

CEGEPs which now receive 35 students received 80 in 2010. We graduated 35, now we graduate 10. The registration rate is no longer there, and retention has also fallen. This is visible in the job market.

According to data from the Quebec Ministry of the Family, the number of registrations for DEC went from 843 in 2013 to 546 in 2021, a drop of 35%.

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The difficulty in attracting and retaining candidates for the profession of educator is added to the many professionals who are changing careers at the moment. - reported last week that 10,000 have left the profession over the past three years, mainly because of salary and working conditions.

The early childhood college diploma is the least well paid of all DEC. After three years of study, a qualified educator earns $21.60 per hour and tops out at $30 after 11 years of experience.

In Prince Edward Island, the entry wage was increased to $29 an hour. The training programs are full and the CPE have no trouble recruiting.

Negotiations are underway between Quebec and the educators. The latest news was that the Legault government was proposing a starting salary of $24.34.

In 2021, the government has set itself the objective of recruiting 18,000 educators by 2026. For the moment, it has added 7,490 in three years. We would therefore need to recruit more than twice as many in the next two years.

The scholarship is not enough

Since 2022, the Quebec government has offered a scholarship of $1,500 per session to students, or $9,000 over the entire course, but that has not been enough to generate much attraction and retention.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Regional Admission Service of Metropolitan Montreal (SRAM) recorded an increase of only 5% in applications to the DEC – Childhood education techniques.

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Gabriel Pigeon is in his third session at Collège Montmorency and he will change direction at the end of the year. After his field placement, he was “disturbed” to see that after three years of study, he would earn barely more than an unqualified educator (entry salary of $18.52 per hour ).

Even graduates will not work in CPE

Like educators who leave their jobs to seek better salaries in school daycare, many DEC students who continue their training will not go to work in a CPE.

Claudie Ricard, in her second year at Cégep de Saint-Jérôme, is “considering” the idea of ​​moving towards a career as a teacher. The working conditions of educators, it makes me ask myself questionsshe admits.

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Daphney Thuot-Thivierge, in 2nd year at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit, also plans to go to university to become a teacher, because teachers have better conditions.

I was super motivated at the startsays Sandra Hermine Tsakem, in 3rd year at Collège Montmorency, but, If things don’t improve, I’m going to go to college to major in another field..

Last year, less than a third of educators hired in Quebec were qualified, which poses a problem of educational quality, as the Auditor General highlighted in her report this spring.

Sandra Hermine Tsakem says that when we do the internships, we see that the quality is no longer there et it’s going bad.

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It’s discouraging. Passion is no longer enough. There is no longer a motivating factor for us students to enroll in early childhood.

This is generally when we give them their first internship. that students are going to abandon, explains Mélanie Rousseau of the Association of Teachers in Childhood Education Techniques.

It is not so much the salary, but more the working conditions, and therefore the workload, which will discourage them.

The minister is attentive to what is happening

Already “concerned” by the departures of existing educators, Quebec Minister of Families Suzanne Roy assures that the situation of the DEC is part of all discussions, obviously.

We have put interesting initiatives in place with students in Childhood Education Techniques, ambassadors, who go to secondary schools to raise awareness of what it is.

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What is important is that we must promote and make known the role of educators. […] We hope that the young people who are going to enter Techniques will want to spend their entire career there.

The minister recalls that negotiations are ongoing between educators and the government. If nothing is signed by Friday, thousands of unionized educators will strike on Friday, November 29, keeping their CPE closed until 10 a.m.

With the collaboration of Aude Garachon