When it comes to a student’s poor academic performance, the popular mind tells us, whether we are aware of it or not, that this is the way things are and there is nothing we can do about it. This entrenched fatalism does not hide our collective lack of ambition. To invoke the frivolous fallacy of deprivation or multi-ethnicity to explain our disappointing results would border on dishonesty. The causes are elsewhere.
In Quebec, we are light years away from Finnish education, centered on the pleasure of learning. How can we approach this ideal? Let’s start by abolishing evaluations with these fixed-date encrypted bulletins and let’s focus on the essentials, in this case the natural emergence of the pleasure of learning. Then, what are the solutions to make the school alive in the eyes of the children while the imposition of the bulimic task discourages too many teachers from pursuing their career there?
Decentralization as a driving force
In Finland, although the Ministry of Education sometimes insists on proven practices, the highly decentralized nature of the education system leaves a lot of latitude to schools. “The difference is attributable to the freedom that municipalities enjoy in terms of management, where each school decides how it will spend the sums allocated to it, which also explains the efficiency of our budgets”, explains Pasi Sahlberg, ambassador of the Finnish education system.
You read that right: school service centers do not exist in Finland. The schools belong to the municipalities, but they are financed by the state.
Certain economies of scale, no doubt about it, with less government structure. This is an avenue to explore when examining the example of a country that has freed up financial leeway to offer, in particular, free education up to university, including school supplies and hot meals until at the age of 16 years.
The role of the Higher Council of Education
In Quebec, the Superior Council of Education is an advisory body whose function is to advise the Minister of Education. However, as recently as 2019, the Minister of Education at the time dismissed out of hand a recommendation from this Council which called for the elimination of the encrypted ballot in primary schools in favor of a tool for information highlighting the progress of student learning and which, moreover, would be much clearer for parents. The objective is to put an end to the “cramming” and the logic of competition between students that sets in when they are placed in relation to the group average. Humanizing the school requires an operation where the student compares himself to himself and in relation to what he must achieve, period.
In contrast, the Board of Education has the final say in Finland. The pedagogical aspects are not a matter of politics. Only the budget is the prerogative of elected officials. In their eyes, education is too important to be left in the hands of elected officials whose presence is ephemeral, especially when a vision rhymes with long-term orientations. School is taken so seriously in this country that the primary objective is to allow each child to reach their full potential and develop their self-esteem and the pleasure of learning while respecting their learning pace. Indeed, there is more than an ocean that separates us.
Our quality of life is closely linked to the quality of our education system
A revolution is needed in education, the first project of which will have to tackle the outrageous evaluation that is rampant in our schools. The encrypted report card generates an antinomic anxiety to the pleasure of learning. However, the idea that a fulfilled student who develops at his own pace acquires fundamental knowledge more easily has nothing to do with an enlightened pedagogue’s utopia. Indeed, the well-being of the child and the staff requires a complete overhaul of the current model. If the school is in great need of love on a physical level, the staff who work there need it just as much, according to a recent statistic that nearly 30% of teachers drop out before they even have five years of teaching. experience. Personal and collective tragedy, it goes without saying.
However, we know that by inheriting the taste of learning to our youth, we will value this noble profession, thus creating a virtuous circle where the teaching community will evolve in a better environment to transmit its passion, knowledge.
This is why Quebec must quickly offer itself a summit on education to better understand the causes of the worrying state of health of our school network. A Quebec that is mobilizing to become, like the Scandinavian countries, a leader in education. These countries have known better than anyone else how to realize that school is the most effective institution for reducing social inequalities and fostering the development of the adults of tomorrow. Prioritizing brain development, as is the case in Finland, is inescapable, and to achieve this, education must be at the top of the valuation of professions in a knowledge society. What if school, which cements social cohesion, became not one but THE social project? Is it too ambitious?
To read tomorrow: And if the Quebec school became a real living environment?