(Quebec) Not to be invited to the same evening: Bernard Drainville and the representatives of the Independent Federation of Education (FAE).
The Minister of Education and the union – with which the government is negotiating the renewal of collective agreements – engaged in a spat on Friday, as part of the second day of public hearings on Bill 23.
After the union’s presentation, Mr. Drainville was surprised that the FAE, according to him, is opposed to the entire bill. The union countered that the government does not need to introduce legislation to improve student success. Rather, it should improve the teaching conditions of teachers.
Where the tone rose was when the Minister of Education confronted the FAE on its position on distance learning. The bill provides that the government may “determine, among the exceptional or unforeseeable situations preventing them from being admitted to school, those in which the services of preschool education and primary and secondary education […] can be delivered remotely.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Mélanie Hubert, President of the FAE
In its brief, the FAE states that “the scientific literature seems to agree on the fact that distance learning should be a solution of last resort”.
” [Le projet de loi 23] could allow the ministry to consider this type of education as a solution that could help to overcome the shortage of staff as well as the lack of physical spaces in the establishments”, warns the union.
Mr. Drainville replied by giving the example of a child suffering from cancer who must isolate himself. His bill, he said, will allow the ministry to provide him with distance education without having to go through the development of a pilot project. The President of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert, replied that a child suffering from cancer, as described in the Minister’s anecdote, is already receiving distance education to this day.
“Honestly, whether you’re against the bill, it’s your perfectly legitimate right, but to have trouble finding just one small positive,” he began at an open mic, “I find it appalling, ”he added off the microphone.
“If being critical is a problem in a democracy, I wonder where we are going,” lamented Mme Hubert.
Bill 23 in brief
- Bill 23, once adopted, will allow Minister Bernard Drainville to appoint and dismiss the directors general of school service centres.
- Quebec is creating a National Institute of Excellence in Education, whose mandate will be to guide the school network towards educational practices supported by science.
- The government is broadly changing the mandate of the Higher Education Council to focus exclusively on higher education.
- Mr. Drainville gives levers to his ministry to collect data in schools in order to constitute a quantified dashboard on the state of the network.
- The education sector is worried about the new powers that the minister wants to assume.