Campaign for Paid Practicum

Education students from McGill and universities across the province will gather in Quebec City this Thursday for a demonstration as part of the campaign to gain remuneration for their fourth-year practicum – or work placement course.

Students pursuing education degrees in Quebec are currently required to complete four unpaid practicums, one in each year of their program. According to Claudia Gucciardi, Education representative to the Students’ Society’s legislative council, practicum positions often require students to travel long distances to their placement positions and put in extensive work outside of the classroom to prepare for lessons.

“We’ve been looking at other schools and programs across Canada that do offer some form of remuneration,” she said. “But our mandatory stages are not being remunerated at all; there are no loans or bursaries available specifically for that purpose.”

In addition, Gucciardi explained that the campaign aims to put pressure on the Ministry of Education to standardize practicum guidelines for all schools in the province.

“Different schools have different practicum lengths, and different requirements … so we’re looking to standardize the stages,” she said. “It would be great to have all the stages paid, but right now the most realistic goal to have is to try to get the longest one paid.”

The demonstration is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. outside of the National Assembly and will include students from McGill, the University of Quebec at Montreal, and Laval University in Quebec City. Although the campaign has been endorsed by two provincial student lobbying groups – the Quebec Student Round Table (TaCEQ) and the Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ) – SSMU Vice-Principal External Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan said that the campaign is being led by the individual student associations.

“The campaign that is going on right now is one in which, in our discussions with the FEUQ we’ve agreed that we don’t want it to be territorial,” said Ronderos-Morgan. “We want it to be as inclusive as possible, so it’s going to be led by the student associations with technical support of FEUQ and TaCEQ.”

Ronderos-Morgan and Gucciardi both expressed disappointment with the scheduling of the demonstration, due to both the issue of transporting students from Montreal to Quebec City early in the morning as well as the fact that most fourth-year Education students are currently completing their practicums and cannot miss class. However, Ronderos-Morgan said he has been in discussion with the FEUQ to organize a demonstration here in Montreal for sometime in March.

Although Michelle Courchesne, the provincial minister of education, announced the creation of a body to discuss the issue of paid education practicums in November 2008, Gucciardi said she has yet to hear of any results from this.

“Last I’ve heard was that [the Ministry of Education] just wasn’t looking to delve into the issue,” she said. “That’s why we’re looking to put pressure and hold these demonstrations. We want to hold discussions on the issue and get the ministry to take this more seriously.”

The ministry did not return the Tribune’s requests for comment.

The McGill Tribune
Tori Crawford | Published: 2/16/10

Courchesne reflects on the idea of remunerating student teachers

-Cauchy, Clairandrée

Several days before the start of a possible electoral campaign, Minister of Education Michelle Courshene announced her intentions to create a committee to examine the possibility of paying student teachers.

During a conference of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) which was held last weekend, Courchesne stated that they had initiated pressure on elected officials for paid field experiences in Education.

The committee intends to bring together MELS officials, student representatives, as well as delegates from universities offering teacher Education programs. “The recruitment of teaching staff is an important issue to maintain the quality of our educational system. The committee’s mandate is to examine the conditions of these students’ stages. The committee will also allow us to examine measures that better support future teachers,” stated Ms. Courchesne, in a memo distributed yesterday.

Students studying Education must complete four field experiences during the course of their studies, one per academic year. Beginning with an initial observational stage (year one), student teacher progress to taking near complete control of all classroom responsibilities by their fourth stage. This final stage lasts from 8 to 14 weeks, depending on the area of study. The Minister of Education estimates that approximately 3500 Education students will complete this field experience this year. The FEUQ claims that students experience financial difficulties during this stage, as they have to dedicate approximately 60 hours a week to their stage (class time, duties, homework related to the stage, etc). According to a study conducted for the student federation, 82% of Education students had to leave their part-time jobs, or considerably reduce their work hours during this stage, translating into an average loss of $2200 income. The study places the price tag for the province at around $16 million in order to remunerate all student teachers at minimum wage.

The president of the FEUQ, David Paradis, is elated by the creation of a working committee on the issue, first put forward by his organization. “It is a good first step. This will allow a deeper examination of the issue,” states Mr. Paradis.

He is not worried by the election campaign context in which this working committee was created, as the Parti Quebecois Education critic, Marie Malavoy, is also “favorable to the payment” of student teachers, while the ADQ Education spokesperson claims his party privy to this issue as well.

Le Devoir, Tuesday November 4 2008, p. a2

It wasn’t long after we were stretching our legs outside of the car before we realized just how cold it was on a March day in Quebec City. Nevertheless, Claudia Gucciardi, Adam Polka and myself, three students from McGill only connected to this foreign and frozen campus by our steadfast commitment to Education, trekked on to find our meeting place.

It didn’t take long. A quick stop inside one of the local buildings to grab a bite to eat, followed by a short look-see into the Ed. building at l’Université Laval (which, as it turns out, isn’t found on the top of a steep hill), and we made our way to what seemed like a growing crowd. Truthfully, all three of us were surprised by the fact that there was a growing crowd. U of L did an incredible job of rallying BEd students and non-BEd students alike. And despite the frigid weather, all that were present bore witness to the collectivity of fiery spirits dedicated to the cause. What was the cause, you ask? “Stagiaires Cassés: Pour la remuneration des stages,” loosely translated as “broke student-teachers for the remuneration of their stages.”

On March 12, 2009, over dozens of students from l’Université Laval and three brave souls from McGill fought the cold weather and marched from the university to the MELS building nearly three hours away, in order to gather the attention of our Education Minister, Michelle Courchesne. No, Mrs. Courchesne did not publicly appear center-stage when we asked her to, but a police escort was gracious enough to follow our lead,  as was the local media, who were also more than happy to report on the event on the local news later that night.

As an Education undergrad on stage, have you ever wondered to yourself, “why am I not being paid for my hours of work?” It seems to be a perfectly reasonable question, but maybe you haven’t asked it. Maybe you were too busy lesson planning to even think about it. Each and every student who has endured an eight-week stage at the front of a classroom, with up to 40 high-energy elementary or secondary students, knows where you’re coming from. Add to that a McGill supervisor with a rigorous checklist of evaluation credentials, and we’ll forgive you for ignoring any personal thoughts that may pop into your head while you stand in front of the chalkboard.

But while I have your attention, let’s dig into the issue a little:

The undergraduate Education program at McGill, like its counterparts across Quebec, is a professional program like any other highly esteemed professional program at our university. Like those, ours requires that students complete field experience work throughout their degree to evaluate their competency. Like those, our students dedicate countless hours in and outside of their respective locale of the fieldwork, sometimes late into the night, in preparation for the next day. And like those other professional programs, our students take their field experiences extremely seriously.

Why then, when we consider that a majority of university stages in those other programs are paid by the government at an average rate of $14.82 per hour worked, are Education students not paid a similar wage? In terms of the relative demand on the student then, the commonalities between our field experiences and theirs are quite alike. But let’s push further. Education students are subjected to a four-year program to obtain their degree, instead of the usual three for a Bachelor’s. While on stage, students are expected to have to travel up-to one hour to and from their host school (while still others travel two or more each way). More importantly, a lot of students quickly discover that it is extremely necessary to quit their part-time job in order to keep up with the workload that a field experience demands. With all this in mind, it seems more than fair that l’Université Laval has asked that Education students be remunerated in some form or another during their fourth stages.

And we at the Education Undergraduate Society have agreed. We’ve taken this is to task and decided create our own campaign for those McGill students who want to get involved. The name for the English campaign as decided last spring is known as The Campaign for Paid Practicum. After discussing it with the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU), they’ve agreed to support us as well.

Need more convictive force? SSMU has a representative on TaCEQ, a student lobby group comprising multiple universities from the province, and has agreed to bring the news of Paid Practicum there. More? We’re making noise in student societies across the province: CADEUL and AEILIES as well as REMDUS are aware and have shown support for the cause.

So what does all this mean? It means that Education students aren’t just whining. It means that this is a serious issue with serious backing from students across Quebec. It means that serious voices are ready and want to address it, and we’re serious about wanting MELS to do the same.

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If you feel strongly about being remunerated for your hard work on your field experiences, please take issue with us.

Follow us at paidpracticum.org, on Twitter @EdUSNews, and on the EdUS Facebook Group to see how you can help get involved.

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