Teachers say immigrants not to blame as Quebec links teacher shortage to newcomers

As Quebec politicians continue to point to immigration -- a common justification for the province's ills -- as the main culprit for the province's teacher shortage, education experts say newcomers are not the underlying cause of the widespread teacher shortages.

Quebec's school year started on a familiar note: thousands of teaching spots were unfilled, and the provincial government had to defend itself for its failure to solve the problem.

But as politicians continue to point to immigration -- a common justification for the province's ills -- as the main culprit, education experts say newcomers are not the underlying cause of the widespread teacher shortages.

"There has been a significant increase in the number of children who need a teacher because of the explosion in the number of immigrants," Quebec Premier Francois Legault told reporters last week, despite also mentioning working conditions and salaries as other reasons the education system is lacking personnel.

In mid-August, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville said there were 20,000 more students enrolled than last year, about 80 per cent of whom are newcomers to the province. With about 5,700 teaching positions unfilled, he called on the federal government to "get control of the immigration process to reduce temporary immigration in Quebec, particularly asylum seekers."

Statistics from last week showed 1,957 teaching positions across the education system had yet to be filled.

Drainville's math, however, doesn't add up, says Diane Querrien, professor in the department of French studies at Montreal's Concordia University.

"Even if you go with the worst-case scenario, meaning that the 20,000 more students are all immigrants, it doesn't make sense," Querrien said, explaining that dividing that figure by the roughly 5,700 unstaffed positions would mean hiring one teacher for groups of only three to four students.