Minister of Education Refuses to Create Professional Order for Teachers After Reports of Classroom Violence

The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, has no intention of creating a professional order for teachers, as some are demanding following the cases of violence reported in the media in recent days.

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The creation of such a body is “not in [les] boxes” of the minister, said his cabinet in the afternoon of Wednesday.

At the beginning of the week, the aggressive remarks made by a first-year teacher in a school in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac rekindled this debate, while two other cases of teachers who insulted students were also reported. afterwards.

The expert Égide Royer, who has been calling for the creation of an order of teachers for years, repeats that such a body would ensure “better protection of the public”.

“It doesn’t make sense to have to call the police for a case of verbal aggression in class,” he said.

The new provisions surrounding the National Student Ombudsman, which will come into effect from the fall in the school network, do not constitute an effective bulwark against such behavior, he adds, since the deadlines surrounding the filing of a complaint are “very long”.

“The child has time to eat misery for a while before something happens,” illustrates this retired professor from Laval University.

However, Quebec does not intend to open this debate, which is far from unanimous since the teachers’ unions are opposed to the creation of a professional order.

In 2012, the Coalition avenir Québec had promised during the election campaign the establishment of such a body, a promise which had subsequently been abandoned at the start of the first term of the Legault government, in 2018.