Departmental exam results | The secret of the success of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine

Secondary school students in the Magdalen Islands obtained results that were surprising to say the least in the last ministerial exams, both in French and in mathematics. The sum of several factors that, taken together, served the students well.

“What’s in their genes to achieve such results? Launched by a French specialist, the joke expresses the surprise that many had when they saw that 95.5% of students in the Magdalen Islands had passed the ministerial French test in 5^e high school last year.

While the majority of school service centers in Quebec have seen the success rate of students decrease in this exam, in the Magdalen Islands, it has increased.

How to explain such a success? From the outset, the Director General of the Center de services scolaire des Îles reminds us that the number of students in 5^e secondary is low.

“We have small groups, around sixty students. So a student is worth more than 1%. Down or up, our rates [de réussite] are very volatile. If we were mediocre, it would appear very quickly too, ”says Brigitte Aucoin.

Polyvalente des Îles-de-la-Madeleine has 424 students this year.

“As we have fewer young people, it may be easier to go see the problematic cases,” agrees Nathaël Ouellet-Miousse, French teacher in high school. “I count them on the fingers of my hand: I can say: ‘You, you and you, I want you to come to recovery and we work on verb conjugations,'” he says.

The teacher insists on one point: we cannot compare the results of the Magdalen Islands to those of Montreal, for example, where we welcome many students from immigrant backgrounds.

Another factor that may have contributed to this success: schools were not closed for very long on the Islands due to COVID-19. “We were like in a bubble”, illustrates M^me Around.

The schools of the Islands, she also says, work “a lot” on writing and reading in primary school. The idea: to go “beyond the program, so that at the end of each cycle, [les] students become high-level readers,” continues Brigitte Aucoin.

French teacher Nathaël Ouellet-Miousse also says that this is not his only class of 5^e secondary that makes the difference. “It starts from preschool, with habits in reading and literacy,” he explains.

The call of the sea

The graduation rate at the CSS des Îles-de-la-Madeleine is close to 85%, says its executive director. “It’s not anecdotal, it’s a trend, but we’re aiming for 90%. Each percentage point that we are going to get is more difficult at this point, ”says Brigitte Aucoin.

These rates are “remarkable for a coastal region,” says Denis Richard, program manager at the Madeli-Aide Foundation for Education, an organization that distributes scholarships for school perseverance.

“The lure of fishing is very strong,” says Richard, who observes that training is important in this area.

“I’m an electronics engineer and they have more computers in their boats than I do in my office!” I think people are more and more aware of that, ”continues Denis Richard.

When the fishing season opens, some students have the call of the sea, observes Nathaël Ouellet-Miousse.

If he is delighted with the good results of his students, Mr. Ouellet-Miousse says that nothing is certain. “This year, are we going to have a 75% success rate, or even 95%? It’s hard to say. We are a tight-knit community, these results made us happy, but we take them with modesty, ”says the teacher.

Let us be reassured: they do well in French and mathematics, but for the rest, the teenagers of the Islands are well like the others?

Nathaël Ouellet-Miousse laughs.

“Yes, they are like the others. They don’t particularly like French and my hobbyhorse is to make it interesting. I want them to understand that I am capable of leading the boat safely if they make a minimum of effort,” concludes Nathaël Ouellet-Miousse.