Quebec faces teacher shortage amid surge in student enrolment

As the new school year approaches, Quebec is once again facing a teacher shortage. With the province expecting thousands of new students this year, many in the education sector say the situation could worsen.

Kathleen Legault, the President of the Montreal Association of School Principals, says that with people retiring and leaving the profession, a shortage is not surprising.

However, what is surprising is the increase in student enrolments this year.

According to Education Ministry data, the number of students in elementary and high school classrooms is projected to increase by 20,000 over the upcoming school year.

While the ministry did not say the cause of the increase, it attributed most of last year's increase to immigration.

The head of the Quebec Teachers Association, Steven Le Sueur, expects the current teacher shortage will only worsen.

"It's going to increase, and we're going to have, unfortunately, nonqualified people in classrooms again this year," he said.

Last year, the province changed the contract renewal deadline to Aug. 8 to ensure schools have positions filled earlier than usual.

On Thursday, Education Minister Bernard Drainville posted on social media that the new deadline was "a major cultural change."

"The aim is to give our children, parents and teachers peace of mind and get the year off to a good start," Drainville wrote. "It was unacceptable to leave them in limbo just a few days before the start of the new school year."

But Legault says it won't make a difference.

"It doesn't give us extra teachers. It doesn't give more legally qualified teachers for our classes.So it doesn't change anything," she said.

The Lester B. Pearson School Board says it is monitoring the situation closely.

"Even if there eventually are shortages by the time classes begin at the end of the month, we will be able to deal with the situation and minimize any impacts on the quality of educaiton we offer students," the board said in a statement.

The English Montreal School Board said they have engaged in a year-round hiring blitz.

"We hired teachers from France and keep looking outside the box. When classes resume, every child will have a qualified teacher," a spokesperson for the board said in an interview.

But Lesueur isn't so sure. He says more needs to be done to attract teachers to the profession and to keep them.

"We've got to work on workload and class sizes and the support for our special needs because that's only rising," Lesueur said.

In the meantime, the education ministry says it will provide an update on the teacher shortage in the coming days.