Let me give you my wish list for the coming year. I sincerely think I deserve to have them all answered, having been a kind columnist all year round. My gift desires, as you might guess, are all related to education.
So let’s go.
Secularism and private schools
I would really like, little Santa Claus, for us to win this upcoming lawsuit concerning prayer rooms in our public schools. These have absolutely no place in a secular school.
This is because the school is, by definition, along with other places, a civic place, and it is precisely for these places that secularism exists, and not for private or public places. I even think, to tell you the truth, that if secularism were to only apply in one of these civic places, it should be at school. Through it, in fact, through the knowledge that is transmitted, children are introduced to everything that will later make them citizens of a society that is itself secular and, better still, through it, we give all children the prospect of an open future, a future that is not limited by their family origins.
The second gift I would like to receive also concerns secularism. You see, dear Santa Claus, I would like us to apply it everywhere, in all schools, without exception.
Along the same lines, I would like to see an end to public funding of private schools. These could of course continue to exist, but it would be the people who frequent them who would bear the entire cost.
INNE and lack of teachers
Other subject. I would like the National Institute of Excellence in Education (INEE) to act very quickly, through the excellence of its contributions to our understanding of the major issues in education, through the valuable insights it provides, through the demonstration of its relevance , of its ability to remain beyond the quarrels that have been damaging education for too long. I will closely monitor his first interventions.
I would also like, very quickly since time is running out, that we install a rapid secondary training pathway for people with university education in a relevant field. Abolishing the certificate in secondary education in the 1990s was a very serious error, which I denounced even then. Let’s reestablish a fast track for this level of education. In particular, we would teach everything that more credible knowledge has established in didactics, we would warn against educational legends and we would provide the tools to recognize them. We would give the rightful place to the history of pedagogy and the philosophy of education. I bet that this would help with teacher retention.
It is not finished. I would like us to learn very soon that the current strike is over and that what has been negotiated will make the teachers’ job easier and more attractive, which means much more than a simple increase in salaries. And that we will have put in place what is necessary to help students in difficulty and with behavioral or learning problems.
I see you smiling, little Santa Claus. You guessed that I was laughing a little while writing all of the above. Neither you nor anyone, fortunately, can make these wishes of a simple individual come true. These are perhaps shared by many people, but it is also very clear that others, possibly many too, are strongly opposed to them.
So what should we do, given the sad state our education system finds itself in today?
Parent 2.0 more than ever
In my opinion, there is only one way to do things, only one solution to resolve this serious problem. It consists of taking stock of the situation as best as possible, informing ourselves as completely as possible about what we collectively want, and taking all of this into account to formulate solutions based on the best established knowledge.
A big challenge, but one that has already been successfully met in Quebec, with the famous Parent commission of the 1960s. It gave birth to the major structures, institutions and legislation that made up our current education system.
I think I was the first to say that today we must set up such a commission, what I called a Parent 2.0 commission, non-partisan and which would be given the time it needs to do its essential work. I said this in 2016. Seeing this commission launched in 2024 is my only big wish. It’s the right thing to do. I don’t understand that, in the face of everything that has happened, is happening and threatens to continue to happen, and which is dramatic, serious and informed people do not agree with it.
But I am delighted to learn that Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois support this idea. Well done !
Fingers crossed. These things are of capital importance for our children, of course, but also for Quebec as a whole.
I wish you happy holidays.
This column will return to you on January 6.
Doctor of philosophy, doctor of education and columnist, Normand Baillargeon has written, directed or translated and edited more than seventy works.