Ministry of Education | More and more complaints

Services for students with special needs, school transportation, discrimination and harassment: the number of complaints received by the Ministry of Education has increased in recent years.

Lea Carrier
The Press

In 2021, 369 complaints were made to the Ministry of Education (MEQ), according to data obtained by The Press.

These complaints relate to public schools in Quebec, and exclude vocational training and general education for adults.

In 2017, 194 complaints were filed by citizens, then 258 complaints in 2018 and 233 complaints in 2019. In 2020, Quebec received 292.

With 169 complaints as of May, the year 2022 seems to be following the same trend.

The MEQ points to several factors to explain the increase in complaints, including the massive data theft that affected more than 51,400 teachers in February 2020 and the pandemic.

“The ministry has received a certain volume of dissatisfaction and concerns about the various health measures aimed at the education network,” indicates Bryan St-Louis, public relations officer for the MEQ.

Citizens are also “more likely to communicate with the Ministry to express their dissatisfaction and request its intervention”, he adds.

This increase is not surprising Éric Morissette, associate professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montreal.

The same thing has been observed everywhere, in education as well as in the service or consumer goods industry, for several years.

Across Quebec, a total of 369 complaints is a “fairly reasonable” number.

“If we put into perspective the number of actions and operations taken throughout the education system in one year, it is perhaps millions of decisions,” compares Mr. Morissette.

The spokesperson for the Regroupement des Comités de Parents Autonomes du Québec, Sylvain Martel, is of a similar opinion.

“For all of Quebec, it’s not so bad, in perspective. One complaint is one complaint too many, but that’s not an alarming figure,” he reacts.

Knock on the right door

What concerns Sylvain Martel is the nature of the complaints. In 2021, the most frequent complaints were:

• institutional decisions, policies and regulations;
• departmental policies and orientations;
• discrimination, bullying, harassment or violence;
• services for at-risk students and students with handicaps or social maladjustments or learning difficulties;
• school transport.

The majority of these grievances could have been settled with the school administration or by filing a complaint with the school service center, judge Mr. Martel.

It is possible that parents who are uninformed about the complaints process or who have exhausted all other avenues have knocked on the door of the Ministry, says Mr. Martel.

“I don’t see on what occasion we could resolve a problem at the local level by filing a complaint with the Department,” says Sylvain Martel.

In such cases, the MEQ redirects complainants to the appropriate local processes and remedies, assures the Ministry by email.

The increase in complaints coincides with the end of school boards, notes the spokesperson for the citizen movement I protect my public school, Patricia Clermont.

“School service centers are much more centralized, especially when it comes to information. It’s more opaque, ”she criticizes.

In the past, parents could contact their elected commissioner, who would direct them according to their needs. ” [Porter plainte dans] a school service center is the 12 works of Asterix,” laments Ms.^me Clermont.

A long-awaited reform

But the handling of complaints in schools is set to change.

Adopted in May, the bill on the National Student Ombudsman provides for the creation of an independent body external to the school network by 2023 with the aim of speeding up and standardizing the handling of complaints.

Will complaints to the Department of Education end up on the National Student Ombudsman’s office? Possible, believes Sylvain Martel. One thing is certain, “there is an improvement”, he underlines.

Professor Éric Morissette also sees the appointment of a national student ombudsman in a positive light, in particular for the students of private schools who will finally have recourse to it and for the most vulnerable students in the system.

“When we talk about end of service, it takes a quick complaint processing. Sometimes it’s a matter of weeks or months for a child with a disability,” he says.