Monique Henry has been teaching English in Quebec for almost two decades without official certification. As a so-called “unqualified” teacher, she has had to learn her profession the hard way.
When he started teaching in 2006, he had to fight with unruly students. Since he never completed a college education program, he did not learn classroom management techniques.
“You just do it as you go and learn over time,” said Henry, 46, who teaches English as a second language at a high school in St-Jérôme, Que., on a one-year contract. “There is no one to help you.” … If you have a problem, you are alone.”
Henry is one of a growing number of unqualified teachers in Quebec schools who education experts say the provincial government is increasingly relying on as the teacher shortage worsens, putting the quality of education at risk. education and exhausting school staff.
Unqualified teachers might have university degrees in non-teaching subjects or no post-secondary education. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: they are not officially certified by the provincial government to teach.
Traditionally, teachers in Quebec obtain their certification after completing a bachelor’s degree in education and obtaining a teaching license. In response to labor shortages in the education system, the province has lowered the bar for obtaining that designation, but there is little incentive for unqualified teachers to obtain certification because they are in such demand that school boards hire regardless of teachers. educational background of the candidate. .
In December, the Quebec Department of Education said there were 9,184 unqualified teachers in the province’s public schools, up from 8,871 in May 2024 and 6,654 in May 2023. But that figure only includes teachers with contracts for more long term and excludes substitutes, who constitute the large part of unqualified teachers.
In 2023, Quebec’s auditor general published a report revealing that in the 2020-21 school year there were more than 30,000 unqualified teachers in the educational network, mostly substitutes, a figure that represented more than a quarter of all teachers. teachers.
“Very dependent on unqualified teachers”
Nicolas Prévost, president of the Quebec federation of school administrators, said he expects the number of unqualified teachers to increase significantly in the coming years due to low enrollment in university education programs and the provincial government’s difficulties in replacing teachers. retired teachers.
Geneviève Sirois, professor of school management at TÉLUQ University, agrees. “Right now we rely a lot on unqualified teachers.” In 2015, Quebec had around 15,000 unqualified teachers; that number doubled in less than a decade, he said.
Although unqualified teachers vary widely in professional experience, Sirois said those without adequate training can hinder student learning.
“Imagine a first grade child who needs to learn to read and write and ends up with a teacher without knowledge of pedagogical principles, reading and writing…. When it comes to struggling students, we can see the potential consequences right away,” he said.
In Montreal, unqualified teacher Matthieu Théorêt, 47, has previously had two long-term contracts, but prefers to replace him. Unqualified teachers often show up for work after the school year has started without time to prepare, he said. This means that in many cases they depend on classwork and the information provided by their colleagues.
Some teachers at the Montreal high school where Théorêt works helped him last year, but they were too busy (or exhausted) to help him this year. He doesn’t blame them. “They took a lot of time from their jobs to help me and to help the other teachers who came before me and were exhausted,” she said, admitting that sometimes it feels like a burden.
The tension is not limited to fellow teachers, but also to secretaries and other support staff. “Everyone has to take on some type of organizational capacity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sirois said new university programs have been created at the request of the province to expedite teacher certification, adding that the government is granting provisional teaching licenses to students enrolled in teacher training programs.
But there are few incentives for unqualified teachers to get certified, says Valérie Harnois, a doctoral candidate at Laval University who studies how the province is responding to the teacher shortage. There is so much demand for teachers, he said, that unqualified people get regular work and almost the same salary as teachers who have degrees and licenses in education.
“There are very few advantages financially to being legally qualified,” Harnois said.
In a statement, the education department said Quebec is spending millions of dollars to recruit and retain workers: $39.6 million to make part-time positions more attractive, $37 million to keep teachers on the job retirees and another $37 million to support teaching staff.
Henry is on his way to finally getting his teaching license. A few years ago, she temporarily left teaching to take a job as a 911 operator, but a new remote learning degree program at the University of Sherbrooke lured her back to the classroom. “I always wanted to go into teaching,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2025.
