Within two years, specialized educators or childcare workers will be present in class to support teachers in all primary schools in Quebec, says the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge.
Mr. Roberge was visiting a school in the capital on Tuesday morning to unveil the main lines of the pilot project to help the class which will be set in motion in 100 schools in the province from the start of the school year, as reported by Le Newspaper last week.
This pilot project, which provides for the hiring of two full-time resources in each school, comes with funding of $21.3 million over two years.
The model will then be extended to all primary schools, says Minister Roberge.
“Certainly we want to deploy the classroom assistance project to all primary schools in Quebec,” he said. We want all schools to be able to benefit from this and recognize the exceptional work of support staff. We are thinking more of the TES (special education technicians) and the members of the daycare services, but it can be other staff members (who will come) to support the teachers and therefore offer a higher quality service.
The money will be there, he adds, without going so far as to quantify the funding necessary to implement this new measure across the province.
“The government’s vision is to (…) deploy it so that all schools can have access to these classroom support services,” reiterated Mr. Roberge.
The announcement of this pilot project is one of the centerpieces of a school staff development plan that was made public on Tuesday, with funding of $ 140 million over four years.
“We want to recognize the immense contribution of all school staff to our collective future, to what is happening in our schools,” said Mr. Roberge.
The plan provides funding for local enhancement initiatives, to promote careers in education and to improve training for school staff, among other things.
The minister recognizes that the lack of substitutes can be a hindrance to teacher training in certain environments, but assures that funding will now be there.
