New figures reveal improvements in teacher shortage for Quebec's English school boards

Two days after the Quebec Education Minister described the severity of the teacher shortage, it appears not to be as bad as he thought.

CTV News called every English school board in the province on Friday and the staffing situation is very different from the government's data.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said more than 8,500 teacher positions were unfilled for the start of the school year but what he was saying was based on government data from almost two weeks ago.

According to the government's data, on Aug. 14, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board had 450 missing teachers. It was in the top five in the entire province, including French school service centres, but now it's down to 28.

The English Montreal School Board, the largest English board in the province, cut the number of teachers it's missing in half.

The Lester B. Pearson School Board told CTV News on Aug. 29 that it is missing 15 teachers, but is recruiting on a daily basis.

The Central Quebec Board was missing 32, but now just 10 positions are unfilled.

In the Eastern Townships, it was at 28, but now it's four. Meanwhile, the New Frontiers Board went from eight vacancies to three.

Some boards didn't respond with a number on Friday or wouldn't divulge the numbers, only telling CTV News they would have enough teachers.

It's important to note that most English boards didn't have a severe shortage as the French service centres did, but the Montreal School Service Centre (CSSDM) says it also cut the number of teachers it was missing almost in half.

The minister had said the goal was to at least have an adult in every classroom, but many school boards regularly wait until the last minute to fill all their positions for a number of reasons.

They need to figure out what's called the recall list, which is how many teachers they need and where.

Also, teachers might have taken the summer to figure out if they might retire, or leave the job, or need to take maternity leave if they become pregnant.

So why release the data that was already been out of date?

The Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) says it could be inexperience on the part of the education minister, Bernard Drainville, who has only been in the position less than a year.

"He's been thrown into the fire as well and he's got people around him who've been there a while, but it's still his first [round] with starting the new school year," said Steven Le Sueur, president of the QPAT. "Looking at the reaction from us — the unions — and like I said, we're in negotiations, and we'll see what happens."

Obviously, for parents who were very worried about whether their child would have a teacher this year, it appears, at least, on the English side, there have been massive improvements in the last two weeks.

With files from CTV News Montreal's Rob Lurie