Two weeks after the start of the school year, there are still more than 1,000 vacant teaching positions in Quebec’s public schools, while school service centers are apparently courting retired teachers.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Education, 1,032 teaching positions, including 174 regular full-time positions, still need to be filled in the school network.
This is an improvement from last week, when the number reached 1,331.
To meet the needs, schools directly call on retired teachers.
In Montérégie, the Grandes-Seigneurie service center has published a call for applications aimed mainly at retired teachers for contracts and replacement needs in almost all subjects, from kindergarten to secondary. Teaching certificate required.
The service center decided to do this by approaching teachers who are not former employees, to facilitate “the identification of jobs for those who do not necessarily know our ways of doing things,” explained in its spokesperson. words, Hélène Dumais.
This type of targeted recruitment, however, is not a way to reduce the use of unqualified teachers, “especially since the number of retired people who have shown interest has not been significant so far,” he continued.
Since June, only one retired person has volunteered to offer their services to the Grandes-Seigneuries, said MME corn
In a context of shortages, Quebec renewed financial incentives for a year to convince retired teachers to return and provide assistance to the school network.
Those who return to service are paid at the same rate as they left the teaching, rather than the usual rate of supply, without penalty to their retirement benefits.
In the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ), it is estimated that most of the environments “create procedures for retired teachers”.
“Often, those who respond come to support their home environment or their school, out of solidarity, but the work is often very difficult and unfortunately not an incentive for most of them,” said its president, Josée Scalabrini. .
Last year, nearly 2,900 retired teachers came to help the school network to do substitute work, four times more than last year, according to data from the Ministry of Education.
