30,000 unqualified teachers in Quebec, unions worried but not surprised

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The two teachers' union federations say they are concerned that 30,000 unqualified teachers were teaching in Quebec schools in 2020-2021, as the Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc reported on Thursday –but they are hardly surprised.

"Yes, it's alarming. Yes, we're worried. But we're not surprised, because it's consistent with what we've been saying for years," said Josée Scalabrini, president of the CSQ-affiliated Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE), in an interview on Friday.

She also expressed concern that the auditor general had pointed out that the education ministry did not seem to know much about what was going on in the schools, that there was a lack of data.

Mélanie Hubert, President of the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), shares the same concerns, and is also not surprised.

She also urged people not to put down the unqualified teachers, who are lending a hand to other exhausted teachers.

This report was first publishde in French by The Canadian Press on May 26, 2023.