With marks of 40% in mathematics and 60% in French, a high school student is considered to be in a situation of “success” at the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM).
In a press scrum at the National Assembly, the deputy general director of educational services at the CSSDM, Pascale Gingras, confirmed the definition of “academic success” which now prevails in certain Montreal secondary schools. She was thereby attempting to justify the CSSDM’s decision to close 26 special training path (CPF) classes over the last two years.
From M’s point of viewme Gingras, “we are not talking about class closures”; “we’re just talking about the right student on the right path.” She explained that the CSSDM noted that “the CPF welcomed students who were successful” and added that from now on “when we have a student who is successful, we take them to the regular level”.
In this CSS schools, a student must have failed in mathematics and French for two years in a row to have access to a CPF class. Result: a high school student who has 40% in mathematics and 60% in French is considered to be in a situation of success, attested Mme Gingras.
The criteria for access to specific pathway classes “have not changed,” the manager also argued. They are simply applied in a more “rigorous” way now, so that a smaller number of students have access to this type of class. At CSSDM, “we have 26 fewer classes [dans 19 écoles secondaires] », Agreed Mme Gingras. “The number of classes has decreased because we applied the criteria. » The CSSDM also says it has five new “service points” for students with serious learning difficulties.
Resources… or not?
Faced with the anger of teachers, who are demanding a moratorium on the closure of CPF classes in secondary schools, the manager was reassuring. “A successful student is in the regular class and I have confidence that the school team is capable of setting up a service organization around the regular class. I have confidence that in each school, we organize the best services,” she said.
While in parliament, teachers reported the opposite. “In ordinary classes, at the moment, we have a massive integration of students who arrive with difficulties,” illustrated Amélie-Shuka Gadbois, who teaches French in a Montreal school. “I don’t have the means, we haven’t added resources, there was already a lack of them. And there, we receive these students without additional resources, without support. We no longer know how to help our students. »
Simon Chevarie explains that his son Félix, who had around 62% in mathematics and 55% in French, was able to take the path of a CPF class during his first two years of secondary school. “But according to the criteria they want to tighten, there is no longer access [aujourd’hui]. And I can’t imagine that he would be where he is today if he hadn’t had access to these CPFs,” he said.
Mme Gingras said she was sorry to see teachers speaking out publicly in the middle of Public Schools Week. “I find it a bit deplorable that we are bringing this debate into the public arena when we are convincing parents that the public is the best place for their children,” she said.
Questioned by the solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, invited the CSSDM to defend its decisions itself. “Once we have granted the budget to the CSS, it is the CSS who must govern themselves. We are not going to manage the schools for them. It is up to the CSS to be held accountable, to explain their decisions,” he said.