No, it is not a question of a reform, but rather of a coup de force against what remains democratic in the Quebec school system and against the numerous and complex knowledge of university specialists and people in the field in education. This is the contempt of university institutions, but also of people who have worked in education, including the presidents of the Superior Council of Education. Through his Bill 23, the minister wants to be the only pilot in the big boat of the education network and thus be able, from the comfort of his office in Quebec, to monitor, tell what to do and how to do it to 150,000 people involved body and soul in the educational mission. All without consulting the population, because he knows what is good for them.
The abolition of the Superior Council of Education, which operates democratically and represents the various areas of expertise in education, is very serious and constitutes another facet of this government coup. True guardian of the spirit of the Parent reform for 60 years, this council has produced important reports on the major issues of education, but have they been read and taken into consideration by our politicians? The commercial ideology of education that is that of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) leads us to believe that they have rather been shelved, since they do not correspond to its values.
What does the National Institute for Excellence in Education (INEE) bring will be more than the hundreds of research conducted in education research centers in the nine universities in Quebec and disseminated by the many disciplinary and professional associations that lead professional development for decades?
With its narrow vision of pedagogy, its neoliberal ideology and its positivist epistemology, INEE will essentially decide what is good, what is real science and what to do, as if there was only one right way to teach and have thousands of different people learn, as if the complexity of the school experience could be reduced to mere indicators of performance. This institute, concocted by researchers associated with the CAQ, had been in the cards since the beginning of the government, six years ago, and Minister Drainville “forgot” to mention it when unveiling his priorities.
The INEE will allow itself to decide what to offer as continuing education to the various education personnel, by removing their power to choose the training they need according to the students they have in their class and who ‘they know better than any sacrosanct researcher producing conclusive data, as if the certainties resulting from the medical sciences could be applied in the field of education.
The mantra of academic success, the obsession with numerical results and graduation, only creates anxiety among students. The same thing with the teaching staff, the need to teach and teach only what matters for the exam – and therefore guides the curriculum – creates anxiety. These ministerial examinations have been denounced for decades by specialists in French, mathematics and science, as well as by university specialists in measurement and evaluation.
This institute, which will in fact be a tool at the service of politics, will even have the power to decide what should be taught in teacher training programmes. It even destroys the CAPFE, the Committee for the approval of teacher training programs, which until now ensured, independently, the quality of teacher training.
Unfortunately, with this coup, Minister Drainville is not only changing the structures: he is attacking the deep nature of education and the mission of the institution that we inherited from the Quiet Revolution. This is not progress, but a serious setback. You have to go back to Duplessis’ first term to find such authoritarianism and contempt for democracy and knowledge.
*Also co-signed this text:
Flavie Achard, retired college biology teacher
Stéphane Allaire, educational sciences, UQAC
Joëlle Arbour-Maynard, primary school teacher, resigned
Martine Arpin, elementary school teacher, elementary writing workshop blogger
Charles-Antoine Bachand, education sciences, UQO
Réal Bergeron, professor emeritus, UQAT
Christiane Blaser, Faculty of Education, University of Sherbrooke
Joël Boucher, former elementary school teacher, former school principal, visiting professor, UQAM
Priscilla Boyer, Full Professor, Education, UQTR
Wilfried Cordeau, education science student and parent
Jean Danis, secondary school teacher and doctoral student in education, Laval University
Émilie Deschênes, professor of education sciences, UQAT
Judith Émery-Bruneau, full professor, education sciences, UQO
Madeleine Ferland, retired college philosophy teacher
Nancy Goyette, professor of education sciences, UQTR
Bernard Harvey, professor of education sciences, UQAT
Marie-Claude Larouche, Full Professor, Education, UQTR
David Lefrançois, professor, education sciences, UQO
Marie-France Maranda, retired full professor, Laval University
Stéphane Martineau, Full Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, UQTR
Yves Nadon, elementary school teacher, lecturer, University of Sherbrooke
Isabelle Nizet, retired professor, measurement and evaluation, Université de Sherbrooke.
Marie-Christine Paret, honorary professor, University of Montreal
Michel Parazelli, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, UQAM
Lucie Sauvé, Professor Emeritus, Center for Research in Education and Training Relating to the Environment and Eco-citizenship, UQAM
Joanne Teasdale, retired primary school teacher, former member of the Superior Council of Education
Jean Trudelle, retired college physics teacher, founding member of Debout pour l’école!
Simon Viviers, academic guidance, science of education, Laval University