While the kindergarten admission tests in public schools aroused strong criticism, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, refused to comment on this practice, limiting himself to indicating that the selection process in place “respects the law”.
The newspaper reported Sunday that a kindergarten girl who had already been refused at the public school closest to her home suffered a second refusal this year, even though her older brother attends the establishment.
At École Monseigneur-Robert, located in Québec, the international education program is taught to all students who are handpicked, while other establishments offer the same training without selection.
The 5-year-old girl did not pass the selection activities because she did not have “the required profile”. His parents say they spent approximately $30,000 in vain to legally challenge the admissions process.
Invited to react, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, refused our request for an interview. Its press officer, Florence Plourde, was content to indicate that the process in place in this school “in fact respects the law”, without commenting on this practice.
It was also impossible to know if Minister Drainville could correct the situation as part of his school reform presented in Bill 23.
A “recoil” and a “nonsense”
For Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, who considers the situation “unacceptable”, the reaction of Minister Drainville first represents a “setback” on the part of the Legault government, since former Minister Jean-François Roberge had condemned this practice.
The latter had, however, refused to intervene, since the admission rules are the responsibility of the school service centers, he had indicated.
“It is nonsense that it is time to correct with Bill 23, affirms Mme Rizqy. It does not respect the meaning of the law. Is it normal that in Quebec, we ask a kindergarten child to take an exam to go to the school in his neighborhood? After that, we wonder why we have too many anxious children. I find that outrageous.”
The story is similar from the solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal.
“It’s outrageous, unbelievable. It’s such an aberration to think that parents who want to send their child to the neighborhood public school have to go to court for that. It is a totally broken promise of what our public education system should be”, which is “sick”, she says.
The situation is also denounced by the Parti Québécois, which sees it as a “manifestation of school segregation which is intensifying” in Quebec schools.
“There is something unhealthy in subjecting children aged 4 or 5 to a selection process like that,” said PQ MP Pascal Bérubé in a written statement.
For his part, Stéphane Vigneault, coordinator of the École Ensemble movement, says that selection processes have no place in public schools, since they can be “harmful” for children, regardless of their age.
Mr. Vigneault is surprised by Minister Drainville’s silence on this important issue and also sees it as a “step back” compared to his predecessor.