The foundations of our education system have cracked, but it is a question of surface discipline.
In the 1905 edition of the Teacher’s Manual for the Province of Quebecat the beginning of the presentation of the curriculum — chapter 1, section 1, paragraph 1 —, it is a question, first of all, of “moral and religious instruction”. Know that “the teaching of religion must hold first place among the subjects of the curriculum, and be given punctually in all schools”. All the more so if the child is preparing for his first communion, it is specified.
For these schoolchildren, the manual recommends devoting “special attention” to “teaching the catechism.” The rest appears to be of little importance. In order for the children to reach the promised land of religion, it is even indicated that “if necessary, they will be exempted from some of the exercises in class.” In this theocratic state that was Quebec at the beginning of the 20th century,e century, absolute priority, in terms of education, is given to religion, to religious observances, to genuflections, to submission to order.
Religious education, the only one considered fundamental, is subdivided into prayers, catechism, sacred history, questions of propriety, Latin readings and history of the Church. Public education, within this narrow framework, aims primarily to enable a child to pray endlessly, telling his or her rosary. In this world, a distrust of reading is maintained by the multiplication of prohibitions, as if the act of reading threatened to distance minds from submission to the discipline of religion. A paradoxical relationship with knowledge results.
In 1912, when Charles Magnan, Catholic Superintendent of Public Instruction, was reappointed to his position, he declared — without laughing — that it was useless to reform the school system since Quebec, in this regard, was “at the head of the world.”
Forty years later, this assertion is still held to be true under the Duplessis regime. In 1954, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Omer Jules Désaulniers, said no different from his predecessors. Quebec had, according to him, “the best education system in the world.” In Yamachiche, a sad school, made of simple concrete blocks, now bears his name.
We have come a long way. Have we really come back? The foundations of our education system, patched up in the 1960s, have cracked. The building is tottering. This is not even an allegory. Take the Cégep de Saint-Laurent. Its campus, built around a former seminary, is among the most beautiful in the system. However, the buildings are in such poor condition, due to lack of proper maintenance, that management has had to close some of them. It is now considering moving part of the college’s activities to the premises abandoned by the National Film Board.
Will the situation improve? In the middle of summer, the Minister of Higher Education sent directives to post-secondary institutions to impose an austerity plan. In a context already marked by a deficit in investments, the management of institutions is ordered to considerably reduce their expenditures on building maintenance and equipment acquisition.
The Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue had planned to build a residence to accommodate its students. But now the government is cutting funding for its student housing project, while also claiming to want to resolve the housing crisis that it has allowed to swell under its nose. The Cégep must postpone this construction, which has been necessary since yesterday. At what price can this delay be made up for when this essential project is restarted? According to the CMHC, by 2030, there will be a shortage of nearly 900,000 housing units in Quebec…
It is hard not to think, in the face of such a slide into nothingness, of the electoral largesse of 2021-2022. The government, in an opportunistic impulse, had seen fit to disperse significant surpluses indiscriminately. At the end of the 2021 fiscal year, the CAQ had paid out a first cheque for $500 to adults whose income was $100,000 or less. In 2022, it was the same again. This time, $3.5 billion was taken from the common treasury.
In other words, in less than two years, approximately 6.7 billion in public funds have been squandered, thrown into the air like a shower of confetti at a wedding. The affair was in truth a costly divorce from the reality of the needs of this society. It is an understatement to say that all this money could have been used as leverage to boost an education system that we decided to nail to the floor instead.
What are the young Caquistan activists, trained in this rickety education network, talking about now? On Saturday, the Prime Minister applauded the young people in his party who are demanding the use of the formal “vous” at school, decorum, the wearing of uniforms, discipline, and the penalization of parents for their children’s problems. Why not the return of the good old strapwhile we’re at it? The entire educational edifice is burning. There’s a lack of teachers. There’s a lack of premises. There’s a lack of services. The schools are falling. But that’s discipline and oforder let them discuss first!
When we talk about a vision for the future, it is this lack of perspective that immediately strikes us when it comes to education. In the supposedly meritocratic Quebec of the 21st century,e century, educational priorities continue to be shaped in defiance of reason, at the whim of cuts, cuts and renewed voluntary myopia. We must face the facts: we believe much less in education than we claim.
Everywhere, we are reminded above all of the cost of education. So much so that, every day, we learn a little more about the price of ignorance.