Quebec has approved three university programs leading to the teaching diploma without waiting for the opinion of a committee of experts responsible for their quality. It is “in the interest of Quebecers,” says the office of Education Minister Jean-François Roberge.
Posted at 6:11 p.m
Marie-Eve Morasse The press
The teacher shortage in Quebec schools means thousands of unskilled teachers work there every year. To remedy this, the Ministry of Education recently approved three new courses leading to the teaching profession.
They are offered by the University of Quebec at Abitibi-Témiscamingue and TÉLUQ University.
Now, for the second time in just over a year, the education minister has approved these courses without waiting for the opinion of the Committee for the Accreditation of Teacher Training Programs (CAPFE), its president criticizes.
Two of these programs were in the process of accreditation, but “changes” had to be made to the TÉLUQ University, we read in a letter that Marc-André Éthier, president of CAPFE, sent to the minister on Wednesday.
“There have been several calls from the minister’s office, a form of political interference, to tell my committee to move faster while carrying out its analyzes as quickly as possible, conscientiously and seriously,” explains Mr Éthier, who also did it says a professor at the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal in an interview.
The CAPFE therefore announces that it is ceasing its work, the “sole concern of which is to ensure that all approved programs are of high quality, which is an essential condition for the advancement of the teaching profession”.
In fact, the Ministry of Education’s website notes that it is this committee that “recommends to the Minister to designate the accredited programs, among those that allow access to legal authorization to teach in Quebec”.
In Minister Jean-François Roberge’s office, they say they read “carefully” every opinion presented by the committee. “After that, we make the best decisions in the interests of Quebecers,” writes the minister’s spokesman, Florent Tanlet.
According to the Ministry of Education, 3,757 teachers were not legally qualified in 2020-2021, three times more than five years earlier.