Distance learning, scheduling, “internship on the job”… Faced with the glaring shortage of teachers, Quebec universities are multiplying initiatives to allow teaching students to do substitute teaching or take charge of a class. during the school year. However, they want to show caution in order to prevent young people from abandoning their baccalaureate following a difficult passage in the network.
At Université Laval, 68% of graduates with a bachelor’s degree in elementary or secondary education will complete an “on-the-job internship” this fall, i.e. an internship under an employment contract. signed with a school service centre. “This year, we have a pilot project in two centres,” says Christine Hamel, vice-dean of studies at the faculty of education. “We managed, with the centers, to give students contracts from mid-August. They can therefore prepare properly for the start of the school year. »
Previously, graduates knew their assignment around September 6, after the start of classes. According to Mme Hamel, some gave up teaching following bad experiences. “By giving the contracts really earlier, we think it will bear fruit for perseverance in teaching. It will allow them to better start their career, ”she says.
Once their internship is over, they can continue to work in their school. Some have signed a contract for one school year. « All our winter courses [en quatrième année] are offered in the evening and online to ensure that these resources are not taken away from the school environment,” specifies Christine Hamel.
The University of Sherbrooke has just launched a program similar to that of Laval University for its bachelor’s degree in preschool and elementary education. Starting this fall, 38 graduates will have their own class in a school during an employment internship. They will be able to take fourth-year courses remotely.
At the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), there are plans to modify the secondary education program so that students can work in a school during the fourth year of the baccalaureate. “We have a proposal for modification where we will concentrate all the courses in the first three years, by playing on the summer timetable, to achieve that the fourth year is a year of internship entirely, with supervision and employment integration,” says Jean Bélanger, Dean of the Faculty of Education. “It’s a solution that seems interesting to me for the environment. »
Female students begin to do substitute teaching in the first year of the baccalaureate. Sometimes it’s been four, five or six weeks [de cours] and they are already doing substitute work. With all the perils that entails, because they are not ready…
The reality in the region
At the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), graduates will be able to take their intensive distance learning courses starting next winter. They will therefore be able to return to their region of origin — Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie, Côte-Nord — all week long to teach there.
“We are doing the best we can to arrange the schedules and facilitate the substitution. And not just for graduates,” says Frédéric Deschenaux, director of the Rimouski departmental education science unit. “We have always tried to concentrate lessons in the middle of the week to [libérer les étudiantes] Mondays, Fridays and sometimes Thursday afternoons. »
UQAR is under “a lot of pressure” in this direction from school service centers, argues Mr. Deschenaux. “They tell us: ‘Can you do distance training, so we’ll keep them at home and they’ll continue to train?’ However, this formula involves risks, he believes. “Students start doing substitute teaching in the first year of the baccalaureate. Sometimes it’s been four, five or six weeks [de cours] and they are already doing substitute work. With all the perils that entails, because they are not ready… We have seen students give up after experiences that could be described as traumatic. »
Frédéric Deschenaux stresses that his departmental unit “wants to try to help”, but that it does not want to “cut back on the quality of training”.
Jean Bélanger believes that the “work-study” model could be a path to explore in the “medium term”. “The student could come to university full-time for a year and, after that, he will test what he has learned in the environment,” he cites as an example. “School service centers should reserve positions for this type of student. It assumes that the unions are in agreement. »
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2023-08-23 00:14:16
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