In terms of education, Quebec is at a crossroads. While facing a multi-faceted crisis (shortage of staff, dilapidated schools, quality of the French language, services for students in difficulty, etc.), a growing number of teachers are leaving the profession or considering do it after only a few years. Citizen groups have been expressing their concerns for some time now.
Initiatives of distraught parents have also emerged by bringing together the living forces of the community. A spin-off is in progress. From March to June, about twenty forums are organized to better structure the reflection on the current crisis. This initiative will undoubtedly contribute to explaining in an orderly and democratic manner the expectations of the population and certain elites.
In this context, on the one hand, it is appropriate to take a little distance (around fifteen years) to recall the context in which civil society interfered in the education of young people. On the other hand, it is important to understand that educational inequalities remain glaring in Quebec. Better deciphering certain territorial issues should make it possible to support national, regional and local action plans.
A collective movement
Under the impetus of the Action Group on Student Perseverance and Success and its report Know to be able (March 2009), a mobilization of civil society has gradually emerged in Quebec. Inspired by the report’s proposals, the government strategy “I care about school” was launched in September 2009 by the Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports (MELS). Based on thirteen lines of action, the strategy encouraged all players to mobilize in order to create favorable conditions to reach the target of 80% of graduates among those under twenty before 2020.
In 2009, the Chagnon Foundation launched the generous Réunir Réussir funding program as part of a public-private partnership. To consolidate one of the orientations of the government strategy, namely the need for regional and local action, we then witnessed the gradual deployment of regional consultation bodies (IRC) on school perseverance and educational success.
At the crossroads of players who contribute to student success, these organizations are currently pursuing mobilization efforts in each region without respite. We owe them, in particular, the annual holding of Hooked on School Days. The partnership between the IRCs and the school boards (which have since become school service centres) has been consolidated. Achieving the target proposed in 2009 (80%) contributed to prompting a new ministerial policy on educational success adopted in 2017. It confirmed the importance of continuing the fight against inequalities by proposing even more ambitious targets in terms of graduation rate.
Evolution of graduation
According to official statistics published in 2022, the graduation and qualification rate after seven years of secondary school in Quebec, sexes combined, fell from 70.4% for the 1998 cohort (diplomas obtained up to 2005) to 82.1 % for the 2014 cohort, (diplomas obtained until 2021), i.e. a gain of nearly 12 percentage points.
We can therefore be pleased to have exceeded the target adopted in 2009 in a relatively short period of time. However, we need to take a closer look. For the 2014 cohort (diplomas obtained until 2021), the graduation rate after seven years is 79.0% in the public sector compared to 93.5% in the private sector. The other reason for rejoicing, more timidly in my opinion, concerns the narrowing of the gap between boys and girls. It went from 14.9 percentage points to 9.2 percentage points fifteen years later. The graduation rate was therefore 77.6% for boys compared to 86.8% for girls for the last known cohort.
We can legitimately think that the combined initiatives of local, regional and national actors, in particular the efforts of schools and communities, have made it possible to achieve significant gains in many areas. But the improvements have arguably been registered mainly among more easily supported groups of young people.
Thus, in the years to come, more efforts must be made with the students most at risk of dropping out. Although knowledge of the factors associated with school perseverance is progressing in Quebec, much remains to be explored concerning the realities experienced by young people, taking into account the differences between boys and girls.
The situation in the region
Several studies, in Quebec and elsewhere, clearly show that the spatial distribution of young people’s graduation is very different depending on the territory. Thanks to the CartoJeunes site launched at Cégep de Jonquière, we have many indicators on educational pathways at the national, regional and local levels for several periods.
Notable gains are observed in several regions. Examples include the regions of Montreal, the Laurentians and Laval. The situation has been generally stable and favorable for several years in four regions: Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Capitale-Nationale, Chaudière-Appalaches, Bas-Saint-Laurent. More recently, the graduation rate has improved in the Centre-du-Québec and Mauricie regions.
However, the results remain worrying in several regions at the northern, eastern and southwestern ends of the province, with a significant concentration of regional county municipalities (RCMs) and localities in difficulty. There are several in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, on the North Shore, in Outaouais, in the Laurentians, in Lanaudière and in Mauricie. The case of the Nord-du-Québec region must be considered separately. Schooling there remains very difficult, while the challenges vary considerably from one community to another.
Beyond the differences observable at the level of the administrative regions, we have data allowing even finer analyses. In Montreal, for example, although the situation has greatly improved over the past ten years, disparities remain very significant at the level of municipalities and boroughs. We can remember that Décarie Boulevard draws a rather troubling line between two worlds, with graduation rates generally being much better to the west.
Such disparities must be considered as soon as the problem of the three-speed school is raised! How can the recurrence of observed territorial inequalities be explained? It is clear that territorial fractures are superimposed on the social and cultural factors already known.
If public policies in education must more than ever aim for equal opportunities, they will have to adjust more to territorial fractures, social inequalities and cultural realities. In Quebec, if such an imperative becomes necessary, we have the skills to deal with such issues. The state can no longer content itself with patching up the education system by allowing dissatisfaction to grow both in the educational milieu and in civil society.
However, not everything is negative. Let us recognize that students attending our schools generally benefit from qualified teachers who train them, and caring parents who support them. Moreover, graduation rates and major national indicators have improved over the past decade. According to major international studies, such as the PISA survey, we know that a majority of Quebec students do quite well. On the other hand, a still too large proportion of young people struggle to succeed, suffer, feel left behind, adopt atypical paths, give up.
The Let’s Talk Education regional forums provide a great opportunity for the democratic expression of ideas and expectations in the area of education. However, it will be necessary to go further with courage and rigor. Hopefully, the state will be the torchbearer. If Quebec emerged from the great darkness largely thanks to education and the report of the Parent commission, it needs a electrification to match its ambitions.