iStock The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, then expressed his disagreement with this practice, which the opposition parties had also denounced, while demanding reimbursement for the funded hours.
Called to order by the Ministry of Education, the Montreal School Services Center (CSSDM) has finally decided to signal the end of “at home” hours in its accelerated training programs to become a beneficiary attendant or auxiliary nurse.
“We will comply with ministerial direction. The remote portion of the schedule will be adjusted to in-school attendance time,” confirmed CSSDM spokesperson Alain Perron in an email.
The CSSDM had previously defended its practices. He has since been reprimanded by the ministry and the Minister of Education. A union grievance was also filed against him because of this practice.
Le Devoir reported in November that the Faubourgs-de-Montreal School of Trades offered accelerated programs to become a beneficiary attendant or nurse auxiliary training which included “at home” hours for up to 17% of training time. These hours, which are funded by the Ministry of Education, were not allocated to teachers.
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, then expressed his disagreement with this practice, which the opposition parties had also denounced, while demanding reimbursement for the funded hours.
The CSSDM, for its part, defended its right to offer teaching services “through various methods of training”.
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However, a recent bulletin signed by the Deputy Minister of Education, Carole Arav, takes stock of this practice. “The hours devoted to each skill include time for teaching (by the teacher, in person), assessment of learning, enrichment or remedial teaching. Homework is excluded from the number of hours planned for the study program”, it is written in the January bulletin, intended for all general education directorates.
Ms. Arav also writes that “the duration of study programs as well as that associated with each skill are determined based on the time necessary to learn the tasks of the trade or profession.” It specifies that “the order of the skills taught as well as the time associated with each of them can be arranged”, but that “the duration of the study program prescribed by the Minister of Education” must be respected.
A union grievance
The Alliance of Montreal Teachers also confirmed to: Devoirthat a union grievance was filed at the Faubourgs-de-Montreal School of Trades and the Administration School of Trades, where “at home” hours had also been established.
“Management failed to distribute scheduled teaching hours to the “Support for Assistive Care in Long-Term Care Facilities” and “Health, Assistance and Nursing to Teaching Staff” programs.” , wrote the union in its grievance, in reference to programs allowing people to obtain positions as beneficiary attendants and auxiliary nurses.
The situation, reveals the grievance, is the same in the Sales-consulting program offered at the School of IT, Commerce and Administration (EMICA).
“In fact, by providing that a certain number of funded hours be completed by the student without the presence of a teacher, the employer particularly contravenes, but not limited to, [the four clauses] of the collective agreement,” the union continues, citing clauses associated with priority of employment.
The CSSDM had set up “at home” hours to “meet the needs of students in a context of family-work-study balance,” spokesperson Alain Perron wrote in an email. He added that this practice constituted a “pilot project”.