25 January 2022
The FPSS-CSQ shocked by the lack of consideration for school support staff already in place
After the press conference held today by Ministers Jean-Francois Roberge and Jean Boulet announcing their Opération main-d’œuvre dans le réseau de l’éducation, the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ) is shocked by the lack of consideration given to the support staff already working in our schools.
“When the rate of precariousness of staff already in place drops, I will say Bravo to the government! In the meantime, the funding announced today is only window dressing for the public,” says FPSS-CSQ President Éric Pronovost. “This is proven by the fact that when Minister Boulet was asked about the attractiveness of jobs in Quebec’s education sector, he seriously replied that he was going to carry out ‘promotional and valorization campaigns’. Imagine! Ads!!! I choked when I heard this, knowing full well that we need so much more than that. People are exhausted!”
You may recall that the FPSS-CSQ has on several occasions asked the government to address the labor shortage by making school support staff jobs more attractive.
The solutions are simple. You could, for example, lower ratios and the rate of precariousness, increase the number of permanent and full-time positions, offer competitive salaries and abolish split shifts. There are so many ways you could improve the quality of the jobs of support staff already working in our schools.
Instead, the government is investing $22.6 million to train special education technicians and daycare educators by 2026! In the meantime, what are we doing for staff already in place who are at the end of their rope? What are we doing to try to get all those people who left in recent years to come back to work? What are we doing to hold on to those people who are thinking of leaving their professions soon? We are telling them they will have some new colleagues in 4 years? This is clearly insufficient. It’s like throwing a bucket of water on a burning building,” says Éric Pronovost.