8 April 2021
As part of the government’s Rendez-vous pour la réussite éducative: l’éducation au-delà de la pandémi summit, the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ) presented various elements to support its positions.
The consultation focused on three themes:
- Theme 1: academic success and catching up.
- Theme 2: school organization and pedagogical frameworks.
- Theme 3: well-being and mental health.
Theme 1: Academic Success and Catching up
Which courses of action should be maintained or improved?
Putting education at the top of the priority list is also a question of valuation. This involves recognizing the day-to-day work performed by staff in support of young people and adults in training. But the work carried out by educational personnel is often undervalued.
The FPSS-CSQ proposes the following courses of action:
- Ensure adequate funding for education to meet needs and requirements.
- Recognize the value and work of educational personnel.
- Make greater use of the services of psychometric technicians who, under supervision of professional staff, can help administer, correct and analyze psychometric tests.
- Maintain the homework assistance offered in daycares and extend it to secondary schools.
Which new actions could be undertaken?
Due to an increase in the prevalence of several disorders, and the complexity and greater severity of problems, there is a significant increase in students with special needs requiring support services. Due to a lack of resources, the services offered are clearly insufficient to meet the needs. Waiting lists for assessments are growing considerably and parents who can afford it are resorting to private services, which goes against the principle of equal opportunity.
The FPSS-CSQ proposes the following actions:
- Add significant support resources in direct services to students in order to address prevention needs as well as assessment and intervention for students with disabilities, or with adjustment or learning disabilities, and with at-risk students.
- Add more school support staff to provide direct services to students, such as day care service educators and day care service technicians, to help teachers during specific activities or to allow them to work with small groups, to help them with specific concepts.
- That services for students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning disabilities be extended to secondary schools, as well as to adult education and vocational training. School support staff could be of great support to these clients.
Are there any gains that could be retained after the crisis?
We must continue to make the tools and technological resources required to succeed accessible to all students. In the proper conditions, these tools are invaluable, especially for students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties. We must also provide assistance to these students to ensure optimal use.
The FPSS-CSQ proposes the following:
- Provide support resources to optimize the use of technologies and online educational methods.
- Ensure appropriate conditions for the implementation of tools and technological methods directly associated with the academic success of students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties.
Theme 2: School Organization and Pedagogical Frameworks
Which courses of action should be maintained or improved?
Budgetary measures have been improved and some new ones created to meet specific needs this year. Since we can anticipate big gaps between students next year, these envelops need to be maintained.
Which new actions could be undertaken?
Necessary measures must be implemented to rebalance the composition of schools and classes, while creating enriching and stimulating learning environments for all students. Greater academic and social diversity within classes helps students to succeed.
Resources should not be contracted out. Educational personnel already working in school service centers and school boards are in the best position to understand this environment, identify needs and intervene appropriately with students and adults in training. School support staff provide better continuity of the values of school boards and centers.
The FPSS-CSQ proposes the following courses of action:
- Reinvest in education to provide equitable learning conditions to everyone.
- Offer training and time to learn.
- Increase internal resources to meet needs.
Theme 3: Well-being and Mental health
Aside from learning, extracurricular activities are very important. Measure 15028 – Extracurricular Activities in High School became a dedicated measure last year[1] rather than a protected measure. In the budgetary rules document, it is clearly identified as an exceptional situation for sums to be used for other purposes[2].
In this second year of implementation, the measure was expected to reach two-thirds of secondary school students. It was expected to benefit all students next year[3].
The objective of the measure, moreover, is to “promote the regular practice of physical activities, pleasure, achievement and the development of a feeling of belonging to the school, with the aim of promoting participation, and to create a stimulating living environment conducive to academic perseverance and academic success4”.
We must therefore ensure that measure 15028 be protected again next year, and the objective of offering it to all students be maintained.
Which new actions could be undertaken?
It is essential to make use of the expertise of the members of a school team by implementing conditions that as much as possible promote working together (for example, work organization that provides time for meetings). Support personnel are actually already part of the school team in various establishments. These resources must first be assigned to the school boards and centers to ensure equitable distribution among establishments and so that tasks can be organized considering all the evolving needs of students in all the schools we service.
Teamwork leads to a global vision. There are already several schools, for example, that invite support staff to participate in writing student intervention plans. Whether we are talking about day care service technicians, handicapped student attendants or special education technicians, support staff can provide a special perspective on students in environments outside of the classroom. This is why school support staff are essential.
When we talk about multidisciplinary teams, we must not forget the interdisciplinarity which leads to better collaboration between all stakeholders. An interpreter technician and school secretary may, for example, work closely on developing Braille texts for visually impaired students.
The FPSS-CSQ proposes the following actions:
- To implement conditions that promote teamwork as much as possible.
- To maintain a centralized organization of support services.
- To help identify specific needs involving social service and special education technicians. These technicians have frequent interactions with all students, especially when there are conflicts between two students or a problem with a larger group.
- To reduce precariousness and promote an efficient multidisciplinary team. Special education technicians should not, for example, be cut from 27 hours to 14.7 hours from one year to the next. We must consider continuity of services.
- To provide time for consultation so that teams can meet. There should also be a better alignment of schedules and some support staff should be allowed to be present on pedagogical days, as these are often the best times to facilitate such meetings.
Conclusion
School support staff occupy an important place in the education community. Every student interacts with a support staff member between 20 and 25 times a day.
Whether it is in support of teachers, professionals, administrators, parents, students, school boards or school centers, school support staff are essential to Quebec schools.
The Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ), represents more than 81 job classes, ranging from direct services to students to administrative support, including manual, technical and paratechnical staff.
School support staff contribute to academic success in many ways. We have outlined a few of these ways with the concrete examples offered in this brief. The overall picture is much more extensive.
School support staff are essential and should be called upon even more to meet the needs of our students. We are talking about technicians responsible for recreation, special education, social work, drug addiction, school organization, manual workers, etc.
School support staff working on the ground lead to better continuity of the values of our school boards and centers.
[1] QUÉBEC. MINISTÈRE DE L’ÉDUCATION (2019). Commissions scolaires – Règles budgétaires de fonctionnement pour les années scolaires 2018-2019 à 2020-2021, amended May 2019, p. 74.
[2] QUÉBEC. MINISTÈRE DE L’ÉDUCATION (2020). Centres de services scolaires et commissions scolaires – Règles budgétaires de fonctionnement pour les années scolaires 2018-2019 à 2020-2021, p.81.
[3] QUÉBEC. MINISTÈRE DE L’ÉDUCATION (2019). Mesure 15028, Activités parascolaires au secondaire, p. 7.