A federation of teachers’ union in Quebec is calling on political parties to act after nearly one in five teachers said they may leave the profession due to poor conditions in a study.
According to a survey by the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) of 2,400 Quebec teachers released Wednesday, 16 per cent of teachers said they were either likely to leave the profession or were unsure of staying.
Nearly half of the respondents also said a high workload was affecting their work-life balance and that their students were not receiving adequate services.
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“This excessive workload is not confined to the school setting; it significantly spills over into their personal lives, with many reporting direct impacts on their work-life balance, their health, and their families,” the FAE said in a press release.
The survey also showed that passion for teaching (93 per cent) and relationship with the students (83 per cent) were the top reasons for staying in the profession.
The federation said that this represented a “heartbreaking dilemma” about whether or not to stay as teachers.
FAE represents over 60,000 teachers across schools and vocational training centres in the province’s major population centres including, Montreal and Quebec City.
The results comes on the heels of the news that the province is short of over 3,000 teachers ahead of the upcoming school year.
Political parties are also gearing up for the official launch of the campaign ahead of the provincial elections in October.
The organization says political parties must act to reduce the workload and class sizes needed to retain teachers.
“We’re asking our teachers to work miracles with less and less support. Our working conditions no longer respect human limits,” said Anne-Christine Tardif, vice president for professional affairs at FAE. “It’s time to act before we lose even more talent.”
“The time for observations is over; now is the time for concrete solutions. The FAE therefore calls on all political parties, as well as Quebec’s next government, to take action where it will truly make a difference in curbing teacher attrition,” Tardif added.
The survey was conducted online among 2,402 teachers at the preschool, elementary, and secondary levels, as well as those in the adult education and vocational training sectors, from the nine unions affiliated with the FAE.
