‘It’s creating a vicious circle,’ says Mille-Îles Liberal MNA Virginie Dufour
In a meeting last week between Laval region teachers’ union reps and three Quebec Liberal Party MNAs, including two from Laval, the union contended there’s been a noteworthy drop in the number of university students working towards becoming teachers because of the CAQ government’s failure to address worsening workplace conditions in public education.
Senior officials with the Syndicat de l’enseignement de la région de Laval met at union headquarters in Pont-Viau with Quebec Liberal MNA Madwa-Nika Cadet, the PLQ’s official critic for education and employment, as well as Chomedey PLQ MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier and Mille-Îles PLQ MNA Virginie Dufour.
No one wants to teach
“What they told us is that the enrollments for education in university have lowered immensely,” Lakhoyan Olivier said in an interview with The Laval News.
“They (students) don’t like to see what’s happening,” added Cadet, maintaining that the impact of the Legault government’s actions on the public education sector is discouraging university students from pursuing careers in teaching.
In June, shortly after the school year ended, the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (with which the SERL is affiliated) issued a statement demanding that Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville be relieved of his cabinet duties by Premier François Legault in view of $570 million in cuts to the public education sector Drainville was making.
Untangling the priorities
“It is likely to get worse,” Cadet predicted, arguing that funding cuts have become the CAQ government’s number one priority, while the government’s second priority is the public education sector’s lack of qualified teachers.
“Since students are looking out for their future, they’re saying to themselves that they don’t want to go into education,” she continued. “They see the working conditions and they do not want to end up on that path.”
But adding to the problem, she said, the number of teachers already inside Quebec’s public education system is also declining simply because the teachers are leaving in desperation.
“They are leaving at the beginning of their careers in the first five years,” she said, noting that the phenomenon has been documented.
However, according to Cadet, experienced teachers are also abandoning the system in spite of the fact they often love working with and helping to educate children. “We don’t give the possibility for the teachers to succeed,” she said.
‘A vicious circle,’ says Fournier
“It’s creating a vicious circle,” interjected Mille-Îles Liberal MNA Virginie Dufour. “Where you have less teachers, then less people interested.”
Taking into account the CAQ government’s management of the education portfolio in addition to all the other dossiers it oversees, Cadet said, “What everybody is telling us is that it’s the first time we see the situation as bad as this. The first time we see this much chaos. The first time we see so many last-minute decisions.
“And that’s the problem with this government,” she added. “First, they make a decision, and then they react. It’s like they don’t consult beforehand. And sometimes when they do, they consult in silos where they consult only one group, then another group, but the groups can’t talk to each other because they’re under non-disclosure agreements that stop them from talking.”
Youth employment impacted
With regards to another dossier, this time affecting the province-wide youth employment network run by the Carrefour jeunesse emploi (including the Laval branch), CJE officials told the PLQ MNAs that the CAQ government (which funds the network) has been demanding more accountability from the CJEs, while cutting budgets and resources.
“Money is now being spent more on bureaucracy and filling paperwork and forms than for giving service,È Dufour said. “They’re funding less, but employees are putting in more time for red tape and paperwork,” added Lakhoyan Olivier.
