In my opinion, education, one of our most important institutions, unfortunately does not occupy the great place it should have in an election campaign. If I had the chance, here are some key topics I would like to discuss with each of the major party leaders.
To Mr. Legault, from the Coalition avenir Québec, I would like to ask how it is possible that a party that defends secularism does not extend it to private schools, which are moreover generously subsidized. I see this as an unacceptable and dangerous inconsistency. Don’t the children of these schools have the right to the same treatment as the others, to the same protection of their freedom of conscience, to the same right to an open future?
To Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, from Québec solidaire, whose party wants to put an end to the funding of private schools, I would like to say that this is a decision that could help resolve the drama of the three-speed school network that is now the our. But what more does it offer in this regard? Because if we eliminate one speed, there are two others left…
To Ms. Anglade, from the Liberal Party, I would like to ask what, in her opinion, are the three best arguments of people who want to extend Bill 101 to CEGEPs and how she responds to them. I would pay as much attention to his choice of the best arguments as to his answers…
To Mr. Duhaime, from the Conservative Party, I would like to ask what arguments against the conception of education as human capital he considers important, credible, and how he and his party intend to take them seriously in their recommendations.
To Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, of the Parti Québécois, I would like to ask him to clarify the link he is making between immigration, which he strongly wants to reduce, and education, particularly higher education. On this subject, does he think it possible to act on the file of French-speaking African students who wish to study here, but whose rate of refusal by the federal government is abnormally high?
questions for all
The shortage of teachers is just one of many signs that our education system is in trouble, and it’s a safe bet that the COVID-19 pandemic will make them worse. What do you propose to enhance the teaching profession? What do you propose to achieve this, taking into account the crucial fact that we must value education itself to do so? This is another major topic on which I would like to hear from the various chefs.
I approach it with two examples brought to us by very recent events.
First of all, we have just announced that, to help students in difficulty (there are a lot of them and there is likely to be more and more of them because of the pandemic), we are going to place a virtual platform. You can’t be against virtue and goodwill, but that’s not what the evidence — the conclusions of credible research, which can be taken as the most solidly established — would prioritize.
As for the second example, it seems that there are 2.5 million functional illiterates in Quebec between the ages of 16 and 65. That would put us last in Canada in this regard. It’s a huge problem and it implies the implementation of a vast project if we want to solve it. But here again, if we rely on what the evidence tells us, we should review our methods of learning to read.
I would like to ask the various chiefs what they think of the use of evidence in education — where it exists, of course. I would like them to take into account, in their response, the fact that a lot of money is spent in this area and that to invest these resources badly is often to condemn oneself to having to spend large sums to correct mistakes that we might not have made had we taken into account credible research in education, making sure that what we put in place works.
We continue.
The report of the Cloutier commission on academic freedom recalls that “recent media controversies [sur la liberté d’expression à l’université] are not […] not isolated events. “They represent a major trend in the university environment and have a definite impact on the way in which members of the university community contribute to the university’s mission. Do you intend to take this file seriously?
Finally, given all the challenges we face in education in this world that has changed so much since the years of the Parent commission, I would like to ask the party leaders if they are for or against the idea of launching a Parent Committee 2.0. And to give it the time and the means to consult the population and the experts in order to reach a consensus on the aims to be pursued and the means of achieving them.
It would be, in my opinion, doing the right thing today if education is taken seriously, as it should be.