“No place” in a public school should be used for praying, but private denominational schools can continue to receive public funding, Education Minister Bernard Drainville repeated on Tuesday.
“We do not intend to review the method of financing private schools,” he insisted during the study of credits – an annual exercise of accountability to the National Assembly. The Minister was pressed with questions about private denominational schools by MPs Pascal Bérubé and Ruba Ghazal, from the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire.
“It’s not one of our priorities,” also dropped Mr. Drainville, after MP Ghazal had sought to know if the minister wanted to know “how much public money we give to denominational schools.”
Currently, the Ministry of Education does not take into account the denominational status of a school in granting its funding. Moreover, private establishments are neither classified nor listed according to denominational status at the ministry.
Two weeks after the publication of a directive prohibiting prayer rooms in public schools in Quebec, Mr. Drainville’s position caught the attention of his political opponents.
“What is the consistency with the actions he has taken recently? asked Pascal Bérubé. “He is the father of the Charter of secularism, he is in a formation which had the adoption of law 21 [sur la laïcité de l’État], Where is the consistency ? »
In the Minister’s opinion, the most important thing is to ensure “that the educational programs are given in these schools”.
Lack of data
Bernard Drainville has also had to recognize, on several occasions, that his department does not have data allowing him to assess certain realities of the school environment.
What is the waiting list for specialized resources in elementary school? In high school? Impossible to know, agreed the minister during an exchange with Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy. “These are crucial data to know whether or not our action is working,” she argued.
“I agree, this is information of public interest,” acknowledged the minister. “The data is in the hands of school service centres. The elected official explained the long road that he himself has to take to obtain information about the schools.
In veiled terms, he reiterated his intention to table, this spring, a bill to notably improve access to data — to “precise information, as much as possible in real time” — in the education network. “I invite the member to remain very attentive. “, he suggested.