Zumba and sushi for teachers: Quebec education minister wants to tighten up training

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville responds to the Opposition during question period Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec City -

The Legault government wants to tighten up the content of teacher training courses.

The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, made this statement on Tuesday following revelations about teacher training in the Saguenay region.

On Oct. 20, the Centre de services scolaires De La Jonquière made it compulsory for teachers to participate in activities such as sushi, Zumba, residential plumbing, charcuterie and running workshops.

But the union challenged the decision to make registration optional rather than mandatory and won its case before an arbitration tribunal with a safeguard order, according to what was revealed in Quebecor's newspapers on Tuesday.

"They had to go to court for this: it seems to me that in terms of efficient use of the courts, personally I've seen better," Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy said, addressing the minister.

"There's a drift here," she continued. "Do you share the same disbelief? When you saw this decision in the paper, did you continue to have your coffee, or did you go: 'Ah!'"

The parliamentary commission is studying Drainville's Bill 23, which would set up a new Institut national d'excellence en éducation (INEE), tasked in particular with providing in-service training for teachers.

Rizqy raised "concerns" about the "professional autonomy" of teachers, who she said should be able to choose their training courses.

Drainville carefully avoided direct comment on the controversy surrounding the activities offered in Saguenay, but hopes that recognized training relevant to the profession will be offered.

Of the 30 or so hours of continuing education that INEE would offer each teacher, the minister intends to prescribe three to six hours himself.

For the rest, he would like to see a "dialogue" between management and the teacher to agree on the appropriate way to "improve this or that aspect of his or her work," in his words.

"What we want is for these courses to be chosen from a selection of recognized courses," he summarized.

In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, the press attaché for the Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE) expressed concern about the minister's intentions.

Sylvie Lemieux pointed out that "the activities imposed on Saguenay teachers are not part of continuing education."

Rather, she sees a risk in Bill 23 if the minister chooses training activities instead of teachers.

The activities that have been denounced, however, "highlight what would happen if the Minister of Education ... were to allow teachers to choose their training activities in their place. Far from preventing situations similar to the one experienced in Saguenay, the minister is opening the door for them to extend to continuing education as well," she wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 31, 2023.