Thank you for the question, Mrs. Goodridge.
At the moment, the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones is working closely with its English-language counterpart, the Canadian School Boards Association, to better understand this shortage of teachers, both in the French as a first language education system and in immersion programs, so that we can get a 360‑degree view of the issue.
The AI-based project is funded by Canadian Heritage and aims to gather data from both English- and French-language school boards to really understand the issue and take action to help school boards, employees and employers address the teacher shortage. We're expecting a partial breakdown of the data this summer, and next spring we'll have a more detailed picture.
However, another major factor in this shortage is the teacher training continuum. Universities have a role to play in recruiting students who choose to enrol in these teachers' colleges. The school boards also have their own role to play in welcoming these new teachers and making sure they retain them. We must nevertheless recognize that one in five teachers ends up leaving the profession because of the educational requirements. This data will certainly help us put measures in place to counteract the shortage of teachers, but teaching needs to be valued, and we need to foster working conditions that will make teachers want to stay on in their chosen profession.