Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville says the province needs an additional 5,700 teachers for the coming school year, but that the situation is better than at this time last year.
The province continues to face a shortage of teachers, Drainville said, at a time when the number of students in Quebec’s primary and secondary schools is continuing to rise.
“Our goal is to have a teacher in each class,” he told reporters in Montreal Friday.
There will be around 20,000 additional students in the province’s schools this year than the year before, he said, and the province needed to fill 3,700 more teaching posts than the year before.
However, the situation has improved since the return to school last fall, Drainville said. When the 2023-2024 school year began, Quebec was short 8,500 teachers. However, he acknowledged that much of the improvement was because teachers were assigned to classes earlier this year than the year before.
That change in the hiring process was intended to make things easier on parents, students and teachers, Drainville said.
“We want them to have a less stressful new school year, we want them to have a nice beginning of the new school year, it is certainly not normal to begin a new school year sitting in a classroom and not have a teacher because the hiring process has not been finished,” he said.
Last year, the number of teachers missing had dropped below 1,000 by the end of September, Drainville said, and he hopes the number of empty positions will decline rapidly again this year.
While Drainville said space has been found for all of the additional students, the province’s school system has been forced to make what he called very difficult choices — cutting pre-kindergarten classes to make space and free teachers to make room for francization classes for new immigrants.
Drainville said that the rise in immigration — particularly temporary immigration — is having a major impact on the school system. He stressed that doesn’t blame the children and is proud that Quebec’s school system is welcoming new arrivals, but said Ottawa has to help.
“The federal government has to regain control of the border and its immigration system,” he said
Drainville said Quebec is also taking steps to make the teaching profession more attractive and that pay has improved since new collective agreements were signed after last year’s teacher’s strike.
This story will be updated.