The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, tabled a bill on Thursday which aims to concentrate several powers in the hands of the minister. This could in particular overturn the decisions of the school service centers (CSS) and regulate the compulsory continuing education of teachers.
The legislative text presented at the Blue Room also includes accountability measures. It thus provides that “every school service center must enter into a management and accountability agreement with the Minister containing, in particular, national indicators, objectives and orientations”.
The bill also grants the Minister “the power to cancel a decision of a school service center and to take the one that, in his opinion, should have been taken first when the decision is not in accordance with the targets, objectives, orientations and directives that it has established”.
Similarly, Minister Drainville would like the holder of the Education portfolio to provide, by regulation, “the terms and conditions relating to the compulsory continuing education of teachers”.
Weakened boards of directors
The legislative text also seeks to grant more powers to the Minister so that he can appoint the directors general of each school service centre. These are currently chosen by the boards of directors. Their powers will be weakened if the legislative text is adopted.
The bill also allows the Minister of Education to “fill a vacant position on the board of directors” of a CSS “if no person is designated to fill it within a reasonable time”.
As expected, Minister Drainville has registered his intention to create a National Institute of Excellence in Education. This new authority would have a board of directors made up of nine members, “including four people working in the field of preschool education or primary or secondary education”, is it written in the bill.
The creation of the institute would have the effect of modifying the mission and the name of the Superior Council of Education, which had been created in the wake of the Parent report. This would become the Council for Higher Education and its mission would be limited to questions “relating to higher education”.
Finally, the bill provides for better access to data in the education network. “It provides that the Minister may designate a system for filing and communicating information in education in order, in particular, to support the management of the education network by simplifying communications”, is it written in the document tabled Thursday. “It also allows [au ministre] to provide for the obligation for certain bodies to use this system for the hosting and communication of information. »
More details will follow.