Do you know Maggie MacDonnell? She is the best teacher in the world, judging by the Global Teacher Prize she won in 2017, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Education. And do you know where she worked? Yes, in Quebec! In the small Inuit village of Salluit.
Unfortunately, his feats of arms went largely unnoticed, like so many other successes of the Quebec education network, to which we prefer to throw tomatoes than flowers.
When we look at each other, we are sorry. But when we compare ourselves, we console ourselves.
The adage applies marvelously to our school system, which is not on the edge of the abyss, despite the very dark discourse that surrounds it: teachers who scream in the face of their students, a dark series of sexual assaults in schools, 30,000 unqualified teachers, establishments falling into disrepair, increase in the proportion of children in difficulty, burnout of staff, dropping out of boys…
Don’t throw any more, the (school) yard is full!
The idea is not to deny the very real problems in our schools. Except that by constantly hammering out a negative message, we discourage those who work hard in the field of education and whom we try to retain by all means.
Beyond all that is wrong, there are a host of teachers who invest in their profession well beyond their job description and who mark the lives of their students. Positively.
It is no coincidence that teachers form one of the professions that inspire the most confidence in Quebec, according to the barometer of the firm Léger.
As the end of classes approaches, teachers deserve to be told: “Hats off! Your work is paying off. »
All you have to do is take a step back to realize that the Quebec school system, even if it is far from perfect, compares very favorably on the provincial and world scale.
The academic results of Quebec students are among the best in the world, according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests carried out by the OECD, which measure the results of 15-year-old students in 79 countries around the world. according to the most recent compilation which dates from 20181.
In overall skills, Canada leads the pack, surpassed only by Singapore. And among the provinces, Quebec comes in third place, not far behind Alberta and Ontario.
For reading, Canada is surpassed by only three countries (China, Singapore, Estonia) and Quebec still comes in third place on the provincial scene.
For mathematics, Quebec obtains a brilliant result, enthroned at the top of the list, just behind China and Singapore, and ahead of all the Canadian provinces.
And for science, Quebec is a good second among the provinces, behind Alberta, with only five countries ahead.
Admit that it makes a nice newsletter. Let’s be proud of it.
It is true that PISA test data has been questioned in the past. In 2015, for example, an unfortunate boycott of public schools in Quebec led to an under-representation of their students. But the results of the last probe are reliable. And the stability of the results over time reassures psychometricians.
Either way, the results of the PISA tests are corroborated by a host of other studies.
Two researchers from ESG-UQAM analyzed no less than 19 international and provincial surveys conducted between 1993 and 2018. They came to the conclusion that “Quebec students, most often, perform better or as well as those from other provinces” . In addition, the Quebec system appears to be more efficient than that of northern European countries which are often cited as models2.
The best thing about all of this? The researchers establish that the Quebec education system is not more unequal than that of the other provinces, contrary to what the Superior Council of Education had affirmed in a report which had marked the spirits in 2016.
This very harsh observation had provided grist for the mill to those who are calling for the abolition of the three-tier system (public, public for special purposes and private). But after consulting scientists, the Council made an update3.
This does not mean that our system is perfectly fair. No way. Moreover, we know that COVID-19 has been particularly harmful for the most disadvantaged.
It therefore remains crucial to promote equal opportunities at school, if we do not want to create gaps that will be maintained until adulthood.
It is unacceptable that public services are underfunded and that young people who need help go hungry. Let’s help them! Let’s identify from their earliest childhood the children at risk of failing to bring them to the top.
If we reduce the gaps at school by pulling down what works best, we will not be any further ahead.
It is healthy to have debates about education, as we saw this week during the hearings surrounding Minister Bernard Drainville’s bill. But through these debates, let’s not lose sight of all that is going well in our schools.