Minister of Education Bernard Drainville presented Tuesday a very “flexible” “catch-up plan of 300 million” to help students who missed several days of school due to the strike.
“We will not go wall to wall,” assured the minister. “It is the needs of the students that will guide us,” he added. It is the school teams that are best placed to determine the needs in their environment.
The proposed measures include tutoring on a voluntary basis after classes and specialized help for students with special needs. Schools that deem it necessary will be able to offer catch-up during the spring break, added the minister, specifying however that it will be up to each school to determine this.
The end-of-year tests will be postponed by two weeks to “free up as much time as possible” before them. “No examination will take place after June 23,” however, clarified the minister. The weighting will also be modified so as not to penalize students who were affected by the strike, as was done during the pandemic.
“For the rest of the school year, we continue with the planned program, in all subjects and all levels,” however, mentioned the minister.
The transmission of bulletins for the month of March will also be postponed by two weeks.
Starting this week, school teams will be called upon to identify students who will need remedial measures and members of school teams who volunteer to participate in these measures. Parents of targeted children will be notified during the week of January 22 and catch-up activities will begin on January 29.
Reiterating that teachers are free to participate in these catch-up activities and that they will be remunerated accordingly, the minister says he is convinced that children will be able to obtain the necessary services, despite the staff shortage. “We trust the commitment of teachers and staff,” he said. He also explained that retired teachers and students from education faculties could be called in as reinforcements.
Students missed 9 to 24 days of school depending on whether their school was affiliated with the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE), on indefinite strike, or with the Common Front. The school service centers which are affiliated with the FAE, on indefinite strike since November, will have a larger share of the envelope of 300 million, which is new money, assures the minister.
An “ambitious” plan
The minister concocted this plan urgently during the holiday break, after the Treasury Board reached an agreement with the striking unions on December 28. On January 4, he said he had held meetings with ministry teams, representatives of school centers, school principals, parent committees and unions.
Several teachers would nevertheless have liked to have been informed earlier of this catch-up plan, since they were at work from Monday to themselves prepare for the return of students on Tuesday morning. They were also not able to listen to this announcement live since they were in class at the time, recalled the president of the Montreal Association of School Directors (AMDES), Kathleen Legault.
“The fact of not having presented the plan yesterday created among our staff the feeling that it was not important, that it was not considered,” she said in reaction to the announcement, Tuesday morning. That being said, she is nevertheless delighted with the addition of additional resources – particularly for tutoring – and the flexibility of the plan. “It’s a plan that is still quite comprehensive and rather ambitious. And we will see to what extent we can achieve this in practice in our establishments. »
The president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec, Mélanie Laviolette, also welcomes the plan with relief. “It’s a plan that is ambitious, but realistic at the same time,” she reacted Tuesday morning. We are happy to have participated in the development of this plan, but also to have been heard in our concerns as parents. »
Unions
The Federation of School Support Personnel (FPSS-CSQ) also speaks of an “ambitious plan” and recalls that several of its members who offer direct services to students are currently working part-time and are available to “act promptly” in order to lend a hand.
At the FAE, however, we “cautiously” welcome the catch-up plan. “The FAE welcomes the fact that the catch-up plan rests on the shoulders of multiple education stakeholders and that it targets all sectors. However, the FAE remains cautious and realistic about the expected results, since the delays accumulated among certain students depend on multiple factors which go well beyond the unlimited general strike,” writes the union in a press release issued at midday on Tuesday.
“It took a strike of around twenty days to put in place measures that should have been put in place 20 years ago,” added the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert.
Further details will follow.