The attention we pay to what is happening in our schools is great, and reassuring. The debate surrounding the content of the new Culture and Quebec Citizenship program is useful and necessary, to guarantee that it will meet our expectations and our needs. What is more, the announcement of its orientations appears to us to be an opportunity to be seized. However, we must ensure that the right conditions are in place to make it a unifying project, and at the Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM) we have a few avenues to suggest.
For 18 years, the INM has helped develop the civic skills of thousands of young people in Quebec. Our mission is to increase the participation of citizens in democratic life, in a spirit of strengthening social ties and our institutions. In addition to our citizenship schools, real meetings where we invite a few hundred young people each year, we go through the classes of college and secondary schools in the province to introduce students to democratic life and the workings of of our institutions, as well as the skills necessary to acquire to live an active citizenship.
We have had the opportunity to reflect on the notion of citizenship education time and time again, with partners from all walks of life, including Élections Québec, Elections Canada, the Secrétariat à la jeunesse du Québec, as well as partners from the community. research and civil society.
When the Ministry of Education launched a consultation on the Ethics and Religious Culture program in the winter of 2020, we submitted a brief that presents three recommendations, which we wish to share with the public:
1-Citizenship education can be the common thread for an overhaul of the Ethics and Religious Culture course, and give meaning to different themes (citizen participation and democracy, legal education, eco-citizenship, sexuality education, development of self and interpersonal relationships, ethics, digital citizenship, corporate culture). These themes should not be placed in competition with each other, but considered on the basis of their complementarity and their relevance for the training of informed and competent citizens to contribute to life in society.
2-Citizenship education is a matter of knowledge and skills that must be considered from primary to secondary, within the framework of a specific course program, but also within the framework of non-classroom activities and through democratic life of schools.
3- Rather than organizing training in such a way that a single teacher can transmit all the knowledge to the program, we must encourage a partnership between the teaching staff and the specialized interveners, to make the interactive and lively program.
Unfortunately, no report of this consultation has been made public. We believe this undermines stakeholder confidence and fuels suspicion about the new course. What were the weaknesses of the education and religious culture course? What points of view were confronted during the consultation? What major trends and what differences? This inaccessible information would allow actors to better understand ministerial arbitrations!
All the same, we have a great deal of hope that citizenship education will become a central project for Quebec schools. This is essential for maintaining democratic health. We observe that the teaching of knowledge useful for the exercise of citizenship is currently deficient, in particular as regards the forms of citizen participation and the functioning of democratic institutions. This overhaul of the program is an opportunity to remedy this, and to respond to the need of young people to understand and take their rightful place.