Students in distress, disorganized, demotivated: the gap is widening between the strongest and weakest CEGEP students. In at least one middle school, more than four in ten students are at risk of failing at least one course as the fall semester draws to a close, learned The duty.
“I’ve never had so many failures and never had so many grades above 90% in my classes,” drops Alexandre Boisvert, sociology professor at the Cégep de Drummondville.
The gap between those who pass and those who fail peaks: in one of his introductory sociology courses, the standard deviation is 30 percentage points. For a group average of 65%, this means that student results vary between 35% and 95%. Normally, the standard deviation varies between 5% and 8% of the group mean.
The teachers interviewed by The duty believe that the pandemic has accentuated a trend that was evident before the spring 2020 confinements. “There may be students who were not ready to come to CEGEP. A student told me that this is the first time that he has had to force himself to succeed,” says Alexandre Boisvert.
Another teacher says he often hears: “I didn’t do much in high school. I would like to start my secondary school again, because I lack knowledge. »
High failure rate
A pedagogical support professional in a large regional CEGEP reports that the failure rate will be between 30% and 40% higher than normal. More than 40% of students (1900 out of 4400) are heading for failure in at least one course. He called each of these students to warn them that they risk failing if they do not try harder. Many pull themselves together, but others don’t even respond to calls or messages.
“When they don’t like the program or they do less well than expected, some people stop going to class without warning. We are making ghost ! “says this education professional, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.
He suspects students from so-called “ordinary” schools of being less prepared for CEGEP compared to students from specific public or private school projects. Inequalities from three-tier high school are perpetuated, he believes.
Schools receive a lot of budgets to help students in difficulty, but some young people are unaware of the existence of the programs or refuse to take part, perhaps for lack of motivation, according to this pedagogue.
Lack of autonomy
All teachers contacted by The duty insist: the majority of students do well. But those who arrive ill-prepared lack motivation or autonomy. “The first assignment I gave my first-year students was to find the cafeteria and the library,” says Danny Lassiraye, chemistry teacher at Cégep de Sainte-Foy.
Its students, who study in the natural sciences, are reputed to be among the best. “Even after four weeks, some had not found the co-op where to buy their books. The session is almost over and I have some who have not yet managed to organize themselves, ”he says.
One of his students asked to retake an exam because he was absent due to illness. The teacher asked him to suggest a resumption date. The student never responded.
The students have adapted their way of life to school at a distance and the transition can be difficult, believes Frédéric Beaudet, vice-president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ). “Going from high school to college was already a difficult transition before the pandemic. We move from the student relationship to the student relationship, he explains. It is accentuated even more when you go from a distance student to a face-to-face student”.
He notes a resignation among students, because they knew before starting college that their learning was not complete during the pandemic. Additional support would be needed, he believes, including peer tutoring.
“The teachers were tired very early at the start of the session, says Edith Pouliot, president of the Union of teachers at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. We took a few weeks to realize that supervising students takes us much longer than normal. »
The task of teachers increases with the help of pupils with special needs. More than 1,100 students out of 5,800 in this large CEGEP are followed by adapted services. This figure does not include those who do not have a diagnosis or who do not register for services, underlines Edith Pouliot.
Forgotten “student job”
Teachers note a change in the behavior of their students, notes Yves de Repentigny, vice-president of the CEGEP group of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ-CSN).
“During the pandemic, students were doing other things while taking their course on Zoom or Teams, he says. This behavior is now replicated in the classroom. The teacher talks and they do homework for another class, or something unrelated to their studies.
Students have completely lost control of the “student profession”, he adds. “It involves working methods, the discipline to study and be up to date,” he explains. It’s something that gets lost.”
The union also notes an increase in cases of fraud and plagiarism, and more student absenteeism, which can fuel academic failure.
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