(Quebec) Bernard Drainville affirms that the concerns of parents and school administrators regarding the reorganization of a remedial education service for children with disabilities at the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) can be explained by simple “resistance” against a new model. “Can we give this new model the chance to prove itself? “, he asked Wednesday.
The Minister of Education was reacting to a letter sent by Montreal school principals to its members, The Press obtained, in which they repudiate the decision of the CSSDM to reassign from the next school year 22 remedial teachers who help nearly 250 disabled students.
“It’s a new model that is offered and like all new models, there is a resistance […] and a worry. So what I say to the parents, to the remedial teachers concerned and to the school principals who are leaving, I say to them: listen, give the new model a chance to prove itself. Because the objective of the new model is to provide more services to more students,” defended Mr. Drainville.
For 40 years, the Pedagogical Support Service for the Integration of Physically Handicapped Students (SSPI) has been made up of remedial teachers who travel to several schools to help disabled students who attend so-called regular schools. The CSSDM has decided to abolish this service and reassign these professionals to schools. Children will in future be helped by remedial teachers working in the schools where they attend.
“What I was presented with is that not only will students who currently have access to a service continue to have access, but students who do not have access will be able to access it,” said Mr. Drainville, who defends the decision of the CSSDM.
The director of educational services at the school service centre, Benoit Thomas, assured The Press that students who benefited from hours with remedial teachers will have the same, if not more, with the new way of functioning.
“Can we give this new model the chance to prove itself? The idea, I repeat, is to have more students who will have more services. […] What is proposed is to ensure that the time of remedial teachers is maximized so that they are at the service of as many children as possible. Sounds like a good idea to me,” said Mr. Drainville.
School principals, however, make an observation that is diametrically opposed to what is asserted by the Minister of Education and the CSSDM.
“While people look to us to break the bad news to parents and would have us believe that these students will receive more services, we must regret that this decision with serious consequences was taken in a hasty and without real consultation,” wrote Kathleen Legault and Stéphane Brunet, president and vice-president of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES).
With Marie-Eve Morasse