In what has become an annual tradition, Quebec Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville announced to the media that there are still 3,858 teaching positions that are unfilled just one week before the new school year begins.
There are about 20,000 more students enrolled than last year and the province is facing a serious challenge in finding enough qualified teachers. At this time last year, there was a shortfall of 3,420 teachers. The minister was unable to put a number to how many support staff positions were unfilled. However, he did find time to suggest that immigrants might be to blame for the difficulty staffing the education system. As CBC reported, Drainville told the press “one thing is certain: we cannot rule out the hypothesis that there are many more children to be enrolled at the start of this year than we had anticipated, and therefore possibly more immigrant children.”
Government, not migrants to blame
Instead of reaching for the increasingly popular “blame immigrants” excuse, Drainville should look inward at the state of education and what his government has done to put the province in this situation. As the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) posted on X in response to the shortage:
“The government’s solution? Hiring legally unqualified teachers. Almost 8,000 have been hired since February. Another 4,200 will be by 2026-27. These teachers don’t even have a degree. This is insane. Our children deserve qualified educators. Yet the CAQ government of Quebec, which promised to prioritize education, is turning away these qualified teachers. Why? Because of their hijab, their kippah, their turban—because of the way they look. Because of Bill 21. It’s time to rethink things. Think of the kids, think of the parents. Maybe parents care less about teachers who wear a kippah than a teacher without a degree.”
The NCCM is pointing to the fact that Bill 21 (also called An Act respecting the laicity of the State) was passed by the Quebec National Assembly on 16 June, 2019. The purpose of this legislation was to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols by civil service employees in positions of authority and by teachers in the public sector. This has undoubtedly pushed teachers out of the profession and discouraged others from joining it.
When discussing the 2023 shortage, Éric Gingras, the head of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), which represents more than 87,000 teachers in the province, said the shortage is brought on by many teachers retiring because of poor working conditions and too heavy a workload.
Reverse Bill 21 and easing teacher workload
To stop the shortage of teachers, new teacher recruitment can’t be the only response. The province needs to work on retaining teachers who are already in the system. That means reversing Bill 21 and easing the workload on teachers, especially by ensuring that support staff are there to make the system run smoothly. Gingras emphasizes, “The first thing you have to do is give them hope, saying you’re going to take care of it, the salaries are going to be better, workload is going to be better, and even for all workers,” he said, “because we’re talking about teachers, but if you don’t attract support staff, if you don’t attract therapists, it won’t help teachers, and it’s going to be the same thing over and over again.”
The collective agreement signed by Quebec Teachers last year won some major gains, but it was not enough to stem the tide of teachers leaving and attract new teachers to deal with the increase in student enrollment. As in every province, teachers need to find ways to pressure the government to hire more support staff for decent wages. All the streamlined application processes, quicker onboarding times and shorter teacher education programs won’t solve the long-term problems in education that are driving understaffing and burnout.
What students and staff need are improved working conditions through smaller class sizes, more supports for students, and hiring many, many more EAs and support workers with decent pay and benefits.
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