The shortage of teachers cause headaches

Archival Photo, QMI Agency

Daphnée Dion-Viens

Tuesday, 16 jan 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, 16 jan 2018 00:00

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The shortage of teachers and personnel because of the headaches of school boards, unable to recruit all the new resources promised by Quebec, to help students better succeed.

In the last provincial budget, the government Couillard has announced the recruitment of 1500 teachers, professionals and educators additional 2017-2018 to provide more services to students.

In the school system, the money is actually available, but positions could not be filled in certain school boards. The situation is particularly difficult on the North Shore.

“This year, it is worse than worst,” says Alain Ouellet, director general of the school board of the Estuary, which extends from Tadoussac to Baie-Comeau. “The shortage has lasted for already a few years ago, but it is even greater this year,” he adds.

As a result, 27 new positions funded with the additional money from the last budget, only 17 have been filled. “There are not enough graduates coming out of our universities. He would have had to provide it before, ” says the director of human resources, Karl Duguay.

Hard-to-fill

The positions are difficult to fill because the amounts invested by Québec represent small amounts allocated to several small schools, ” crumbs “, which does not allow to create posts attractive, ” said Mr. Duguay. “How do you want to get to [fill] a part-time position to 11 000 $ in a small village ? “, lance-t-il.

The situation is similar to the des Phares school board, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, where between 10 % to 20 % of the new positions are not yet filled. For its part, the commission scolaire des Chic-Chocs, Gaspésie, always attempts to recruit a dozen new technicians in special education.

The ministry of Education, the most recent report dates back to October : 1220 additional resources have been hired and 403 persons were in the ” hiring process “. The cabinet of the minister Sébastien Proulx, it is sufficient to indicate that an announcement on this subject will be made shortly.