The Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) predicts that it will be too hot at the end of June for the ministerial tests at primary level to take place.
The office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, informed the Duty Friday that he will submit a new timetable for holding the ministerial tests at the primary level. And this, because his ministry’s proposal for the last primary exam to take place on June 19 was received with concern by teaching unions.
In a message sent on Friday, the FAE notably wrote that “the proposed dates do not [prenaient] not take into consideration certain major issues in the communities.” “The absence of a realistic correction time and the obsolescence of certain schools while the outside temperature will be high are just examples of the many elements that the ministry must take into consideration,” argued the union.
In response, Mr. Drainville undertook to submit a new timetable which will preserve “teaching time as much as possible”, assured his press secretary, Florence Plourde.
The Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) also expressed its concerns to the ministry. For her part, she did not address the issue of the weather. “The further you go into June, the more likely you are to experience extremely hot days and that’s not easy with children. But at the same time, for us, the temperature between the first, second or third day of June… There is the possibility of having hot days at any time,” underlined first vice-president Brigitte Bilodeau.
Too close to the last day?
On Thursday, the ministry proposed to teaching unions that the end of the tests be postponed from June 6 to June 19. However, “we know that the last day of presence of students is the 21st [juin] », recalled Mme Bilodeau. Teachers expressed concerns, since in some cases they had planned special activities, outings or trips with their students during the last days of school. “It sparked a lot, a lot of reactions,” she noted.
Above all, teachers who can be released for proofreading — for a day and a half to two days, depending on the levels — feared not being able to be present on the last day of school, explained M.me Bilodeau. In the same way, mass absences would have caused problems finding replacements, in a context of shortage.
Friday morning, the ministry therefore submitted a new schedule, “and we were completely satisfied,” declared the first vice-president of the FSE-CSQ.
The strike in the teaching sector forced the postponement of the ministerial tests. The beginning of the year exams were, for example, postponed to a period from the end of January to the beginning of February.