The new Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, accepts the three-speed school. It will continue to finance the regular public, the selective public and the private sector.
The École ensemble movement has for years denounced the skimming of students by the private sector and certain public schools to the detriment of the regular public.
In a press scrum at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Drainville indicated that he had no intention of changing the current model, which many decry as being unfair.
The Superior Council of Education even declared in a report in 2016 that Quebec schools were the most unequal in Canada.
Asked whether he recognized that Quebec had a “three-tier” system, Mr. Drainville replied that he had not been appointed minister to “weaken anyone”.
“There is therefore no question of reducing funding for private schools”, he decided, while outside, this is precisely what the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) told him. asked to do.
On this day of the new parliamentary term, unionized teachers from the FAE traveled to Quebec City with the aim of demanding a “just, egalitarian, accessible and inclusive” vision of public schools.
Mr. Drainville said in a scrum that private, special project and public schools each have their role to play.
“Private schools play a role in society and public schools also play a role. And I think they are complementary,” he said in English.
He added that he wanted to increase the offer of specific programs, such as sports studies, for which a selection and fees are required. They can often cost parents thousands of dollars.
“Special projects in public schools are very good. It promotes academic motivation, academic success, so I would like more specific projects in public schools, ”said the minister.
However, he recognizes that “regular public schools need support” and has made it his mission to do more for them.
“Teachers in these schools need help. So my job is to try to find solutions to help them despite the labor shortage,” he said.
According to a recent study by the Institute for Socio-Economic Research and Information (IRIS), nearly one in two pupils desert regular public secondary school classes.
They are 44% to abandon ordinary classes, which then find themselves with a concentration of students in difficulty or more vulnerable.
It is precisely the most vulnerable who would benefit the most from special programs or from the emulation of more efficient students within the class, according to the author of the study, Anne Plourde.