“You’ll get what’s left”: Qualified teachers are unable to take a classroom despite the shortage

Experienced teachers who have to start from scratch after moving to the area struggle to get a class in their field while the number of unqualified teachers continues to grow.

“Now I’m not on any list [de rappel]. this Barren land. “They tell me: ‘You’ll get what’s left,'” Leanne* (fictitious name) says.

She has ten years of experience as an elementary school teacher in Montreal. When she moved to Laurentians, she thought it would be easy for her to have her own classroom at a school in the Mill-Ile School Service Center (CSS).

I applied last spring and made several calls to CSS over the summer. “All they offer me are one-week contracts. Or even several different levels.

However, the Laurentides region also lacks teachers, confirms Dominique Sauvi, president of the Basse-Laurentides Education Union.

“It concerns me to hear that there are qualified people who can’t get a job with us when we need people.”

“Each case is unique, but it is definitely concerning,” says M^I security.

• Listen to Alexandre Dube’s live editorial every day at 6am. 30 across QUB Radio :

Testimonials are many

Quebec is currently experiencing an unprecedented shortage of teachers in its schools, so much so that their number must increase Resorting to people who do not have their certificate Teaching.

However, posts of qualified teachers surviving from one alternative to another abound on social networks.

This is the case of Caroline*, who has taught in a highly underserved area of ​​D.C. for more than a decade in special education, a field in which there is a severe shortage.

The number of customers was heavy and the services were insufficient. “But I loved it,” she says excitedly. “I like challenges.”

She returned to live in her home area during the pandemic. Since then, she’s been jumping from one small alternative contract to another that had nothing to do with her experience.

“I enjoy teaching. But now, I feel like I’m fading away.”

You lose your seniority

Teachers who change district, and thus CSS, keep their salaries, but lose their seniority. This is the case everywhere in Quebec under the national collective agreement.

What differs from one CSS to another are the famous list registration rules that give priority access to job openings.

But in Montreal, the shortage is so stark that this summer it was possible to get a long-term contract without it being on the priority list.

So many ask the question: Are the staffing shortages less severe in their new district or have they been passed over by unqualified teachers in the race for assignments?

For its part, CSS des Mille-Îles confirms via email that all positions are offered to legally qualified employees as a priority.

Qualified teachers who suffer from a sense of injustice

Qualified teachers feel a strong sense of injustice when they find themselves without a contract while realizing that someone without a degree has obtained the degree they covet.

“I know someone who has a 4-year baccalaureate [en enseignement] which has been “bypassed” [sic] By someone who is not legally eligible for a contract this year […] The person only has the relevant baccalaureate degree, which has nothing to do with what we teach.

This testimony appears among several others on the same topic on Facebook. Without a copy of the CSS concerned, it is difficult to determine whether these cases were the subject of a violation of the rules.

But one thing is certain: this kind of twist already exists, notes José Scalabrini, president of the Confederation of Education Unions.

“I stood up to it. I protested it. I won the protest,” says the person who calls on those who feel aggrieved to contact their local union.

Ministry approval

Amelie* has just completed her bachelor’s degree in teaching and received her certificate. During her four years of study, she was told that she would easily obtain a contract with the CSS des Phares, in Basse-Saint-Laurent.

She could have gotten a full-time degree in the field she studied, but in the end someone without a degree got it.

“I am shocked and disappointed,” she sighs. “We made sure that wouldn’t happen.”

In this case, the rules were respected. The other person holds a “temporary teaching license” provided by the Ministry of Education to those committed to training teachers. It is granted the same rights as qualified teachers.

For Amelie*, it is a “shortcut”.

“It certainly creates frustration,” admits Jean-François Gaumond, president of the Métis Education Federation.

Double-edged

But there is logic behind it. In addition to the importance of efficiency, there is also the importance of stability.

“We want the teachers who are at the school to stay there,” sums up Mr. Gaumond. This is why a teacher who has not yet received his degree but already knows the students and the work of the institution He might be a good candidate.

In the case of teachers who change employers, the idea of ​​allowing them to maintain their seniority would be a “double-edged sword,” recalls José Scalabrini.

“I understand the person who is going through this. But we also have to put ourselves in the shoes of qualified people who have been unstable for 10 years and whose continuity may suddenly be jeopardized by the arrival of someone from somewhere else.”

At the time of publication, CSS des Phares had not provided answers to questions Newspaper.

*Fictitious names: The interviewed teachers prefer to remain anonymous so as not to face retaliation from the school service center where they want to get a job.