Hundreds of students demonstrated on the streets of Montreal Thursday afternoon to demand pay for their internships, while thousands of prospective teachers from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) have been on strike since mid-October.
“We are a little tired of being treated as volunteers,” says Lena Duque, a third-year graduate student in teaching French as a second language at UQAM. In our third internship, we accomplish 75% of a teacher’s workload. We have to do planning and evaluations, without compensation. “
“There is no anti-harassment policy on internships, it’s hard for people to recognize that, adds her friend Catherine Francis. It is important that things change for future students. We keep telling ourselves that it is important to have our diploma and that there is a shortage of teachers. Except no one takes care of us, and many people let themselves go and are already exhausted. “
The two were taking part in a demonstration that started from Place Émilie-Gamelin. On Thursday, students from other UQAM faculties and other universities also went on strike.
The students of the UQAM Faculty of Education have been on strike for several weeks and have renewed the means of pressure until November 20. A renewal general meeting is planned, where the participants will decide on the continuation of things.
“We had some meetings with the Faculty [d’éducation de l’UQAM]but the former were difficult, with very little progress, ”says Danaë Simard, head of communication and mobilization for the Student Association of the Faculty of Education (ADEESE-UQAM).
“Since then, there has been more openness on some files. But that’s something we would have liked to see at the start of the strike, he adds. After four and a half weeks of strike, it is a little too late for this small opening. Students ask for more. “
Prospective teachers recently met with the new Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, to talk to her about their requests. The main struggle of the attackers is to obtain better training conditions. This includes establishing a faculty anti-harassment policy. “Currently, UQAM’s two anti-harassment policies do not apply to internship environments, only within the walls of UQAM,” she explains.
