Posted at 5:00 p.m.
Mr. Minister, after 27 years of teaching, I consider that I have a fairly good knowledge of what is generally necessary in order to be credible in front of a group of students: rigor, consistency… and the ability to occasionally put the theory of side to favor the concrete.
That’s why I couldn’t help jumping while reading Marie-Eve Morasse’s article. appeared in the issue of The Press of January 26 where she reports the statistics that you presented on Twitter concerning the absenteeism rate of Quebec students linked to COVID-19.
According to your figures, 2% of Quebec students are absent. These data are so far removed from reality that I wonder if you care to present a realistic and serious portrait to the population, which has the right to know what is going on.
Since my return to class on January 18, I have seen groups every day in which much more than 2% of the students are missing.
Earlier this week, I had four secondary 4 math groups on my schedule. Here’s what I found:
- first period: 22% of students absent
- second period: 13% of students absent
- third period: 35% of students absent
- fourth period: 21% of students absent.
As you can see, we are far from 2% absences. You should know that I could also give you several examples provided by my colleagues. Regardless of the subjects and levels, young people are not in class, for reasons related to COVID-19.
You are going to tell me that this is a very small sample since it is a single school.
However, I must specify that a few calls to colleagues from other schools and other school service centers have shown me that the situation is similar in several establishments.
Obviously, my goal is not to enter into a war of figures with you, because I know very well that with administrative and political arguments you will be able to justify all the statistics that you hold.
However, I think you should know that in the eyes of many teachers, as well as many parents who talk in the evening with their children, the figures you put forward only make you lose credibility, take away seriousness and importance to the education network and feeds the cynicism of many teachers.
In closing, if you want to get real data, I’m sure several teachers would be happy to help you. Personally, I can send you a statement of my groups daily.
All for the sake of kindness.