Mr. Drainville, the voluntarist Minister of Education, accumulates blunders.
In his reorganization plan, he questions the assertion of the Superior Council of Education, saying that Quebec has the most inequitable system in Canada. He questions the existence of the three paths.
Obviously, he does not want to touch the private. Ontario does not fund the private sector: 2% enrollment. In Quebec, 25%. In Quebec itself, 42%. Montreal, 39%. Eastern Townships, 35%.
In my part of the country, there is a municipality of some 12,000 inhabitants. There is a public secondary school. Less than a kilometer away, a private secondary school and a private elementary school.
And, more or less 12 km away, an attractive and renowned private secondary school.
So the public secondary school is losing a lot of candidates to the private schools, as well as to the two big regional public schools with their particular programs.
Every fall when THE Montreal Journal publishes the ranking of secondary schools, following the examinations of the Ministry, I hasten to check the ranking of this school. And, every year, I find it in the very last ones, out of some 450.
So, a year. With 31% of students late; and 42% of its EHDAA students (disabled students and students with learning or adaptation difficulties); 39% failure in MEQ exams.
Mr. Drainville wants to settle this with special pathways in all schools.
During this time, his private schools are not subject to Law 21. Better still, he finances downright religious schools.
I regret that this minister is changing the rules of the game without serious public debate.