(Laval) After months of being rare in interviews, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, finally breaks the ice, Thursday, on this morning of winter storm. He announces seven priorities that will guide his mandate to improve educational success, which includes creating a new “fast track” to becoming a teacher.
Mr. Drainville, who is present in Laval on Thursday and Friday as part of the pre-sessional caucus of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), will hold a press briefing in the morning to clarify his vision in education in order to improve educational success.
There are many challenges in education, as reported by The Press in recent days, when nearly half of the young people in Secondary V have failed in certain school service centers in the uniform French exam. In primary school, pupils in difficulty sometimes even go directly from the fifth year of primary school to secondary school, quite simply because they had repeated a year.
Initially, Bernard Drainville promises to “restore a fast track to the teaching certificate”, an option that would be added to the qualifying master’s degree of 60 credits which is already offered in universities.
“It is urgent to find solutions and demonstrate flexibility to alleviate the shortage of qualified teachers in the network. […] This diploma will be based on best practices in the recognition of prior learning. It will allow holders of a qualifying baccalaureate to become certified teachers and, therefore, to be legally qualified, ”explains the minister in a press release.
Mr. Drainville also wants to increase the number of public schools that offer specific programs – such as arts or sports concentrations, for example – which, he says, promotes the educational success of students who choose projects that correspond to their interests. . “The objective is that all public secondary school students can have access to this type of program if they wish in as many schools as possible,” said the minister.
In terms of teaching French – a priority that was already included in the CAQ’s electoral platform – Bernard Drainville does not detail how he intends to tackle this issue. First of all, the Minister declares that “the status quo for the teaching of this subject is unacceptable”. He then adds that “French is a government priority” and that “the ministry [de l’Éducation] will work to find possible solutions to curb the decline of written French”.
More money to renovate schools
While Finance Minister Eric Girard will present Quebec’s budget for 2023-2024 later this spring, Bernard Drainville is raising expectations by announcing that the government will once again increase the budget for the Quebec Infrastructure Plan ( PQI) for the renovation and construction of schools.
But beyond the issues of school infrastructure, there are just as many challenges inside the classrooms, where there is often a lack of professionals to support teachers with students who have learning difficulties. Bernard Drainville promises to expand the scope of pilot projects of “classroom aids”, which would allow “teachers to have another adult with them in the classroom to help them meet the daily needs of students”.
Finally, the Minister of Education is reiterating his party’s commitment to improving the vocational training offer at the secondary level, in order to graduate 30,000 additional students in this sector over the next four years. Mr. Drainville also promises to improve the collection and sharing of data in his department, which does not always have a clear picture of the situation in its own network.