Do students have enough hours of French, mathematics and science? For one of the major teachers’ unions, the question must be asked as the results of the latest Ministry of Education exams are worrying in certain subjects.
In the public network, the success rate for the writing exam in French is only 66.9%, down 4.2 percentage points compared to last year. In private schools, the success rate has also fallen, by 3 percentage points (but at 83.8%, it is significantly higher).
In an interview, Richard Bergevin, the new president of the Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement (FSE-CSQ), explained that his organization is concerned about the time taken up by special programs in students’ timetables, in light of the results in French, among other things.
Many private schools have based their image on their offer of special programs; public schools, to stop the hemorrhage, are also increasingly offering these intensive programs, whether in music, dance, the arts or a sport.
PHOTO RYAN REMIORZ, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Richard Bergevin, President of the FSE-CSQ
“Yes, during adolescence, young people must move,” acknowledges Mr. Bergevin, but he is concerned that we are cutting back too much on other subjects.
Surprisingly, the teaching time for each of the compulsory subjects is listed for information purposes only in the teaching regime.
The FSE-CSQ wants Quebec to establish as soon as possible a minimum teaching time for each compulsory subject in order to avoid excessive cuts in teaching time.
A “dubious” link
Students whose teachers are affiliated with the FSE-CSQ suffered 8 days of strike action last year; those whose teachers are unionized with the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) missed 22 days.
Mr. Bergevin finds “dubious” the link that the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, established between these missed school days and the results of the Ministry’s exams.
He points out that private school students also performed worse than last year in French, even though there was no general strike on their part.
Annie Primeau, vice-president of educational life at the FAE, also believes that Mr. Drainville erred in referring to supposed effects of the strike. “The Ministry’s exams reflect an entire academic journey,” not just one year, and the difficulties in French have been palpable for several years now, she says.
And they sincerely concern the Ministry of Education which, noting this, is preparing to revise the program, recalls Mr.me Primeau.
She also highlights how young people’s access to culture is compromised by limited budgets and rules that make it difficult even to buy novels under study.
Mme Primeau also believes that the insufficient number of specialized services for students in difficulty continues to pose a problem.
Surprising leap in mathematics
But math results are on the rise, with a success rate of 76.6% (a surprising jump of 7.5 percentage points).
Spontaneously, Annie Primeau points out that the June math exam “was quite an epic,” with a question that was more or less the same as in a very recent exam.
Also, according to feedback from teaching staff, it seems that “the math exam was very easy,” she says.
In any case, the students in question are now in CEGEP.
And Marie Montpetit, president and CEO of the Fédération des cégeps du Québec, considers the results to be “worrying.”
“Students who enter French-language CEGEP having obtained less than 75% on the 5th grade French exame secondary school students have a CEGEP graduation rate of between 43.6% and 54%, compared to nearly 84% for those who obtained higher results. Mastery of French is essential for success in CEGEP,” insists Mr.me Montpetit.
English and History Results
Finally, note that the results of the ministerial exam in Quebec and Canadian history are down with a success rate of 74.8% (2.1 percentage points less than last year).
In science, the success rate is 70.1% (90.8% for private schools). Before the pandemic, this rate in public schools was 74.4%.
Finally, everything seems to be going well in English as a second language. In written production, the success rate is 91.7%, up 0.4 percentage points.
What you need to know
In the latest Ministry of Education exams, there was a drop in French results.
For the unions, these results have nothing to do with the strike, but possibly with teaching time, the lack of services to students or the pandemic.
A major teachers’ union is concerned about the place of special programmes in the timetable.