24 February 2023
School Daycare Services
Recent decisions by the Centre de services scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke (CSSRS) are causing problems in some school daycare services. The Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ) and the Syndicat du personnel technique et administratif du CSSRS-CSQ (SPTA-CSQ) deplore the decline in the quality of services being offered in some schools.
The shortage of personnel has led the CSSRS to implement contingency plans that modify the ratios of the number of children per educator in daycares. At lunchtime, some establishments have gone from a ratio of one (1) educator per twenty (20) children to one educator per sixty (60) children.
Following this decision, SPTA-CSQ President Renée Bibeau witnessed “an upsurge in schoolyard violence, an increase in conflicts between students, and complaints from parents whose children are coming home with their lunchboxes still full. Because of the excessive number of students per educator, rigorous monitoring of students is impossible. People are having to work in emergency mode, which makes it impossible to all the needs of our students.”
Make the jobs more attractive
Éric Pronovost says that “the government needs to make jobs more attractive by increasing the number of working hours and offering full-time positions. The average salary of a daycare educator is only $19,000 per year and 60% of these people have precarious jobs. The government and school service centers must be aware of what’s going on and make the appropriate offers during negotiations.”