A CEGEP is going it alone by completely postponing its return to February 7 because of the Omicron tidal wave, a “daring” decision, according to teachers and students.
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“We found that the safest way and with the best vision was to start over as late as possible,” explains Hélène Bailleu, Executive Director of the Cégep régional de Lanaudière.
The session was supposed to start on January 23 or 24. Instead, the CEGEP decided to start face-to-face on February 7.
Until then, there will be no virtual lessons. The schedule has been completely shifted.
Faced with the contagiousness of the Omicron variant, several CEGEPs and universities have decided to start their session remotely or to postpone the start of the academic year for a week.
But for now, the Lanaudière Regional Cégep would be the only one to go so far in its change of plan, according to a tour of around forty cégeps carried out by The newspaper last week.
“Admirable”
“It’s an admirable decision. We are happy to see that the mental health of students is important to them, ”responded Julien Mei, who represents the students of the L’Assomption campus.
“For us, a return from a distance or in hybrid mode was not desirable”, explains Mme Bailleu.
“Our psychological services are extremely busy […] We had several tones of bell that told us that students were going to drop out of the session if we opted for distance education. ”
Starting later has a host of benefits, such as more time for students to get their 3e dose of vaccine and more hindsight to observe the impact of returning to class in primary and secondary schools, she enumerates.
On the student side, the reaction is rather mixed. Étienne Ouellet, vice-president of external affairs at the General Association of Students of the Cégep régional de Lanaudière in Terrebonne, has already received many messages from students anxious at the idea of disrupting their schedule.
“It’s a bit of a disproportionate decision […] We could have started the online session and it wouldn’t have been a big deal, ”he remarks.
This “daring” decision was well received by teachers in a context where the network is in dire need of “predictability”, said Yves de Repentigny, vice-president of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec.
A pilot on the plane?
He is worried about the entire community, which has still not been entitled to a press conference by the Minister of Higher Education, Danielle McCann, five days before the start of the school year, which is still scheduled for next Monday in several establishments.
“Where is the pilot on the plane?” he impatiently. “We cannot blame the CEGEPs for making their own decision on their own.”
Still, at the Cégep régional de Lanaudière, a variety of questions are still pending for several stakeholders: what will happen with the uniform French test supposed to take place at the same time for everyone? With the reading week and the quitting deadline?
For its part, the office of the Minister of Higher Education indicates that CEGEPs are autonomous in the organization of their school calendar, provided they meet certain criteria such as ending the session before June 30.