The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, welcomed the first results of his educational catch-up plan on Tuesday. As part of this, there are 215,013 students who will receive educational support services.
“So far, so good. Honestly, we are very satisfied with the response,” he said during a press scrum. On January 9, the CAQ elected official unveiled this plan accompanied by a budget of 300 million dollars which aimed to provide aid to students who were deprived of lessons during the public sector strikes in the fall.
In all, 2,501 schools offer at least one measure of the catch-up plan and 145,540 students will benefit from tutoring. More than 76,000 people with special needs will participate in specialized educational activities offered in 1,639 schools.
The minister, however, clarified that a student who receives, for example, three types of services is counted for each of them. In total, 500,000 interventions will therefore be made to help students.
As for those who have not been contacted as part of the plan, but who nevertheless need to be caught up, Mr. Drainville urges parents to contact their child’s teacher. “The financial means are there. And for me, all the messages I receive from school administrators is that they are open to offering more than what is offered. »
“Mostly” positive reaction
According to figures presented Tuesday, a total of 18,856 teachers provide tutoring in 2,501 schools. “We still got a very good response,” said Bernard Drainville. The reactions we have are not unanimously positive, but they are mostly positive. »
At the end of January, a survey by the Fédération québécoise des directions d’establishment d’enseignement (FQDE) revealed that few teachers had raised their hands until now to work overtime as part of the academic catch-up plan. . The minister then did not want to “draw hasty conclusions” before having the first portrait in hand. It is the latter which he took stock of on Tuesday.
At the time these lines were written, the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) had not responded to our interview request. In total, it represents 66,500 public sector teachers.