Secondary five teachers, who are worried because their students could be penalized by missed school days during the CEGEP admission process, deplore the vagueness surrounding the situation which does not seem to have been taken into account in the catch-up plan presented by Quebec.
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“This is really the blind spot of the catch-up plan. My students asked a lot of questions in class about this, they are sad because they feel like they have been forgotten,” he told Newspaper a fifth-grade secondary school teacher from the Montreal area, who declined to be identified because she does not have authorization to speak to the media.
On social media, several teachers have expressed similar concerns in recent hours.
Notes to be produced by February 21
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, announced Tuesday that the report card for the second stage, scheduled for mid-March, may be postponed for two weeks this year due to the strike, which lasted five weeks for 40% of students in the province.
However, secondary five students will not be entitled to this two-week reprieve since grades must be submitted earlier due to admission to CEGEP.
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For years, end of secondary school teachers have had to produce the grades of the second report card by February 15, rather than March 15, in order to send them to the regional college admission services which analyze the student files received from from 1er March.
This is the deadline for the first round of admission to CEGEP, crucial for those hoping to be accepted into a limited program.
One week postponement
Due to the strike, Quebec decided this year to push back the deadline by one week, so that teachers will have until February 21 to submit the grades for the second stage.
But a little extra week won’t make a big difference for students who missed more than 20 days of class before the holidays, according to the teacher we spoke to and who is concerned about the inequalities created, while students private did not miss a single day of class.
“We know that they already have better grades than public students, so our students risk being doubly disadvantaged,” she says.
This year, admission to college could exceptionally be based solely on the first stage report card, even if the skills in the basic subjects were not all evaluated by mid-November, says this teacher.
According to our information, regional admission services would already have the possibility of doing this, but in the school network, it is doubtful that this avenue will be implemented on a large scale without formal instructions from the ministry.
The college network “aware” of the situation
As for the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, we were instead directed to that of his colleague, the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, where we tried to be reassuring.
The college network has been “made aware” of the situation so that the context is taken into account in the admission process, it is indicated.
“But in principle, there are no students who will be penalized in relation to this,” said press officer Simon Savignac.
Asked to comment on the situation, the Fédération des cégeps instead sent us on Wednesday to the regional admission services, while reminding us that each college is responsible for its admission process.
It was not possible to obtain further information on this subject on Wednesday from the regional admission services, that of Quebec having instead returned us… to the Fédération des cégeps.