Quebec teachers’ federation calls for Bernard Drainville to step down as education minister

The FAE is demanding that Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville step down, calling the $570 million cuts in education 'the last straw.'

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) is demanding that Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville step down, calling the $570 million cuts in education “the last straw.”

“This is the worst end of year we could have imagined,” said FAE President Mélanie Hubert. “We are only just beginning to grasp the scale of the cuts, the consequences of which are already proving disastrous for students, young people and adults, as well as for public schools.”

• READ MORE: Quebec school officials alarmed by $570M budget cut

She argues the FAE no longer believes Drainville is fit to lead the education ministry, calling the cuts “improvised, incidental and pointless” and an “attack on the teaching profession.”

“Despite repeated warnings from everyone working in education, he persisted in centralizing management that is out of touch with educational issues,” the FAE stated in a press release issued Monday, pointing out that there is a “glaring shortage of staff, difficult working conditions and crumbling buildings.”

Additionally, it adds that one in three students lives with learning difficulties, and schools are increasingly welcoming a growing number of allophones.

• READ MORE: Quebec education network suffered $670M in cuts, 99 projects put on hold, minister says

“The most precious thing about Quebec, and what the [François] Legault government must invest in, is not motorways and battery factories. It’s our children and their future,” said Hubert. “Minister Drainville’s credibility has been tarnished, and it’s time for Premier François Legault to appoint someone who listens to and respects the education community.”

The federation insists the public school network is already in crisis and is accusing Drainville of slashing more than $1 billion in the sector, imposing a debilitating hiring freeze, allowing people to obtain a teaching licence without having ever taken a course and dismantling francization services for adult education.

The federation also criticizes the Quebec government for centralizing power, “undermining several fundamental rights of teachers,” duplicating existing mechanisms and adding a layer of bureaucracy, “instead of listening to the players on the ground.”

• READ MORE: Unions challenge education hiring freezes before Quebec labour tribunal

Pascal Côté, third vice-president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), seconded the FAE’s concerns, adding that the cuts prove the government isn’t prioritizing education.

“In the current scenario, services cannot be maintained. The minister himself admitted it,” he said. “What we are asking for is a change of course before the next school year begins. There is still time for the educational success of young people and the system as a whole.”

In response to the FAE’s demands that Drainville step down, Legault’s press attaché, Ewan Sauves, took to social media X to say, “The same union that abandoned students for five weeks, that left its members without a strike fund and that is challenging Bill 21 with their money...would now like to give lessons in governance? We’ve seen it all.”

Nevertheless, the FAE insists that it will spend the summer documenting each cut “to paint a true picture when the summer holidays return,” adding the full scope of how the sector could be affected may not be seen until the start of the new school year.

“Teachers, students and their parents will spend the summer worrying and wondering what services they will have access to next year,” she said. “The minister has admitted that there could be a breakdown in services, which is indecent and inexplicable.”