FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR EDUCATION GRADUATES

Abstract

When the National Union of Teaehers estimates that there are 20,000 unemployed teaehers in England and Wales, when in the U.S.A. a quarter-million teaehers are reported to be either out of work or to have found employment in other fields, and when enrolment in Quebec schools dropped by 56,653 in 1976, it is hardly surprising that Teacher Associations and students in teacher-training programs express concern about job-openings and employment prospects. This concern is nowhere more acute than when the Freshman classes at the McGill Faculty of Education gather together at orientation sessions in mid-September. Each student looks around at the hundreds of others and not one of them is prepared to believe that there will be sufficient job-openings for everyone. The Faculty is generally condemned for having admitted too many students. During the past few years I have been in a position to offer some reassurance on this matter but it seems that only in rare instances have these reassurances been believed. What then are the facts as they relate to employment prospects in the English-language education sector of the Province of Quebec?