Just how many teaching positions are open in Quebec?

On the eve of the start of the new school year for thousands of students, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville says 1,829 teaching positions still need to be filled in the public school system.

This contrasts with the figure released last week. At that time, Drainville had caused panic when he spoke of 8,558 teaching positions to be filled at primary and secondary levels.

On Monday, the minister reiterated that the data "evolve continuously." He also pointed out that a vacancy does not mean that a teacher is missing from a class.

Last week, he was unable to guarantee that there would be an 'adult' in every class at the start of the new school year.

"I would like (...) to salute and warmly thank the staff of the 72 school service centres (...) who are working so hard," said Drainville in a press release sent out on Monday.

"Your work has made it possible to significantly reduce the number of vacancies. Despite the great challenge of the labour shortage, I am confident that the picture will improve further."

"In addition to existing measures, our government will continue to work on new solutions to alleviate this shortage," he added.

Of the remaining 1,829 positions, 334 are regular full-time and 1,495 are part-time. Drainville said he had received this information on Monday morning.

Sixty-nine school service centres participated in the information gathering.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 28, 2023