The Ministry of Education missed several of its targets last year relating to the academic success of students as well as the recruitment of teachers and students in professional training courses deemed a priority, noted Duty. Under fire from criticism, Minister Bernard Drainville defends his record.
It was without fanfare that the ministry tabled in the National Assembly, on September 26, its annual management report for the year 2023-2024, the analysis of which covers the period from 1er April 2023 to March 31. This reports 10 targets, out of the 18 evaluated, which were not achieved during this period.
“It is certain that the results do not live up to our expectations,” admits in an email to Duty the office of Minister Drainville, who claims to have set “very ambitious targets” as part of this strategic plan. “Although we cannot deny all the challenges that remain to be overcome, the achievement of targets has almost doubled compared to last year. We are therefore on the right track and it is for the children that we are doing it. »
Academic success
Several of the failures compiled in this report relate to the educational success of students in primary and secondary schools in Quebec. A gap of 10.8 percentage points with the target that had been set is, for example, noted for the percentage of students having obtained between 70% and 100% on the compulsory reading test in French, during the fourth year of primary school. . Quebec is also struggling to improve the success rate of boys in secondary school, which remains lower than that of girls, as well as that of students with disabilities, adjustment or learning difficulties (HDAA).
“When a student has difficulty in French, he can develop difficulties in all subjects. This is very worrying. We need to look into it,” said the president of the Federation of Education Unions, Richard Bergevin.
The pandemic, the teaching staff strike in the fall of 2023 and the shortage of specialized teachers have particularly affected HDAA students, notes for her part the president of the Autonomous Federation of Education, Mélanie Hubert. “It’s one of the great tragedies of teachers to feel that we are leaving behind children who we cannot make succeed,” the trade unionist said with a sigh. She deplores the fact that students with special needs often find themselves in ordinary classes “in the name of inclusion”, without the necessary resources being offered to teachers to properly support them.
“There are limits to what we can do in terms of adaptation when a student is one year, two years, or even three years behind the program. It becomes a bit impossible to do that alone in your class,” illustrates Mme Hubert.
A “fast track” criticized
The ministry’s report also notes a stagnation in the number of students in initial teacher training programs – i.e. the four-year baccalaureate – in favor of an increase in the number of students registered in “fast training routes” put in place in the context of the labor shortage. These shortened training courses attracted 1,042 students last year, beyond the target of 1,000 that the government had set, which suggests that they “meet the needs of non-legally qualified teachers” in the search for a qualification, writes the ministry in this report.
However, “what message are we sending to people? We tell them: don’t study for four years, do another baccalaureate in something else and come and work” then as teachers, replies Mélanie Hubert, who fears “the long-term effects” of this measure on staff retention in schools.
The union leader also describes as a “lamentable failure” the data in the report which shows 406 additional people graduated in vocational training in areas deemed priority by the State out of the target of 6,500 that it had set. for last year.
“If we want to promote professional training, it is certain that we will have to rethink how we work there because the feedback from the field that we have, particularly for shortened construction training, is that there has been a lot of resources deployed for little results,” says Mme Hubert.
Minister Drainville’s office argues that these data should be taken with a grain of salt, since they “do not take into consideration the new training courses announced over the last year in priority areas” and which allow students to be paid to take courses in the construction industry or with the aim of becoming a beneficiary attendant, among others.
“We worked extra hard during the last school year to train more people in these training courses. It works and we will know the real results in the coming months,” adds the firm.
The Montreal Journal reported Monday, however, that only a quarter of students who followed the accelerated construction training courses launched last January have entered the construction industry so far, citing provisional data dating from September.
Kindergarten 4 years old
Psychologist Égide Royer, associate professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Laval University, is saddened to see that Quebec is struggling to achieve its objective of providing the entire province with 4-year-old kindergarten classes. . There were 1,660 as of March 31, out of a target of 1,725.
“I understand that we lack teachers and space, but the idea of keeping a solid focus on 4-year-old kindergarten, given the number of students in difficulty and the number of young people we welcome who are from immigration, it is becoming even more important than ever,” notes Mr. Royer, who sees in this resource a way of facilitating the Frenchization of newcomers.
In this regard, Minister Drainville’s office recalls that “nearly 1,300 more 4-year-old kindergarten classes have opened their doors” since 2018. The shortage of labor and premises, as well as “the increase in temporary immigration” however creates “additional pressure” on schools which has the effect of slowing down the addition of these classes to the network, he adds.