SHERBROOKE – In view of the parliamentary return to the National Assembly, Quebec is turning the heat on Ottawa. Minister Bernard Drainville asks Justin Trudeau to stop opening the doors wide to immigrants, while schools are overflowing.
“The open bar in immigration, stop it, because we in education, we lack teachers, then we lack premises!” thundered the Quebec Minister of Education on Wednesday. Please, Mr. Trudeau, we have reached the limit!”
Bernard Drainville took advantage of his arrival at the caucus of CAQ elected officials, who are meeting in Sherbrooke this week to prepare for the resumption of the parliamentary contest, to challenge the Canadian Prime Minister.
Currently, many new immigrant children need to be educated, which puts pressure on the education network, insisted the CAQ minister.
There are now 1,237 francization classes in Quebec, the equivalent of fifty primary schools.
“For the Montreal school service center, since September we have opened the equivalent of three primary schools, and there are more than four hundred registrations currently waiting,” added Bernard Drainville.
Catch-up plan for students
Furthermore, the minister was confident of the success of his catch-up plan for students who were hard hit by the teachers’ strike, despite the negative signals. Even though millions of dollars were invested, in some schools, no teacher volunteered to participate, revealed Le Journal.
“It will not be equal everywhere in all schools,” agreed Bernard Dainville, who is waiting until the beginning of February to have a more complete picture of the situation. There is no question of imposing it on teachers. Help for students in difficulty to compensate for missed lessons will remain voluntary.
He recalls that retired teachers and education students were also asked to support the network.
“We want the children to catch up as much as possible, that they do not pay the price of strikes, in any case as little as possible,” he assured.
