Six schools out of ten are deemed to be in poor condition in Quebec and the situation is such that despite what it had predicted, the government will not succeed in raising the bar this year. Quebec, however, maintains its “ambitious objective” that 90% of young people obtain a diploma or qualification, and is investing $1.6 billion over five years in its 2022-2023 budget to achieve this.
Posted at 4:34 p.m.
The Quebec Ministry of Education predicted that over the next year, the investments would have the effect of increasing the proportion of schools deemed to be in good condition to 50%. However, this objective “will be difficult to achieve”, we read in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan 2022-2023.
The state of schools in the province has rather deteriorated: last year, 56% of school buildings were judged to be in poor or very poor condition; this proportion rose to 59%.
The government observes that “despite the significant investments made in recent years, improving the condition of the school building stock will still take time”.
Consequently, the ministry intends to prioritize work “aimed at correcting air quality and mold problems in schools”, but also “critical” components that have reached the end of their useful life, for example windows and systems ventilation and heating.
This work will have to be carried out in an overheated construction market. La Presse reported last Saturday that the cost of some school expansion work has increased by 100% compared to Quebec projections. Budget 2022-2023 provides $267 million to improve the school building stock.
The government nevertheless intends to continue developing its 4-year-old kindergartens: by 2025-2026, it is expected that 2,600 new classes will be needed for these students alone.
Increase in the graduation rate: Quebec stays the course
The government is pursuing its “ambitious objective” that 90% of young people obtain a diploma or qualification by 2030, which is 8 percentage points more than at present. As a result, nearly half of the investments in education and higher education provided for in the budget tabled on Tuesday are aimed at supporting academic success.
Of the $2.8 billion planned for education and higher education over the next five years, $1.6 will be devoted to improving student success.
Launched in 2021 in the context of the pandemic, the tutoring measure for students in difficulty has been renewed. The government is devoting $55 million to it in 2022-2023, then $65 million in subsequent years, for a total of $315 million within five years.
As of next year, the government will inject 34 million to “promote the success of all students”, in particular by supporting the integration of students from immigrant backgrounds and by promoting the academic success of native students.
Help recruiting teachers
Faced with the shortage of teachers, Quebec has encouraged retirees to return to lend a hand in schools. For the current school year, they were 1,200 to answer the call and the government is extending the financial incentive measures intended for these retired teachers to keep them in their jobs. An amount of 38 million will be devoted to it over the next three school years.
School principals have often reported their difficulty in finding staff and the government intends to help them in this regard. The allowance paid to teachers who act as internship supervisors for students will be increased and schools will have $16.7 million as of next year to “enlist additional resources specialized in recruitment”.
Post-secondary education: financial assistance for students
Even as students take to the streets to demand free education, the government is adopting measures of 342 million over five years which will have an effect on student debt.
Quebec will in particular raise the threshold from which the income of the parents or the student spouse is considered and, like last year, announces that it takes charge of the student interests of the 1er April 2022 to March 31, 2023. In total, 380,000 people should be affected by the elimination of the reimbursement of $72 million in interest.
On the sidelines of the tabling of the budget, the Minister of Finance Eric Girard explained that the Minister of Higher Education Danielle McCann will soon give more details on the increase in tuition fees.
“I can tell you that it will not be out of the ordinary indexations,” assured Mr. Girard.