Less religion, more citizenship. Minister Jean-François Roberge is due to unveil on Sunday the revised version of the Ethics and Religious Culture (ECR) course, called to become a formation for Quebec citizenship freed from “significant drifts” of the religious prism.
This reform raises concerns in the school community, which fears a politicization of education by the Legault government. The Prime Minister did not hide this week his intention to cultivate national pride with this new course focused on “Quebec culture and citizenship”. The program will have “a little chauvinistic flavor,” said Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault.
In the school network, it is pointed out that the overhaul of the ECR course is in line with the identity vision of the Caquist government, which passed the Law on secularism prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols by State employees, including teachers.
The Minister of Education denies politicizing pedagogy. He argued on Friday that the new program will keep what works in the current course, while removing what he sees as major irritants.
“I myself taught the Ethics and Religious Culture course which is still given in our schools. There were positive elements in this program, especially the teaching of ethics: learning critical thinking, learning to reflect, to face moral dilemmas, dilemmas that are neither black nor white, that is. often difficult to decide, [cet élément] is correct, ”said Jean-François Roberge on the show Midi info, at Radio-Canada.
“There were significant drifts in the current price, he added. Many named that there were textbooks which, rather than inciting inclusion, propagated images, stereotypes, prejudices. This is the opposite of what we want when we want a better life together, when we want to prepare people to exercise full Quebec citizenship. You have to be able to approach the themes through something other than simply the religious prism. “
The very name of the course introduced a religious “bias”, according to Minister Roberge. He has long argued that religion takes too much place in this program set up in 2008, in the wake of the deconfessionalization of the school network. The course is given at the primary and secondary levels.
In January 2020, the Minister launched a consultation on eight themes to revamp the ECR course: sexuality education, legal education, eco-citizenship, self-development and interpersonal relationships, corporate culture, ethics, citizen participation and democracy, as well as digital citizenship. Mr. Roberge clarified this week that certain themes will not necessarily be in the version presented on Sunday.
“We did our homework. I read reviews of a course that people don’t know about. [Ils disent] that it is propaganda. People want to go to trial before they even know what it is, ”the Minister of Education said to Midi info.
He recalled that the redesign project was the subject of “the largest online consultation ever conducted by the Quebec government” (28,000 respondents), expert forums and a questionnaire distributed to educational advisers and primary and secondary school teachers (1,546 respondents).
“Political order”
The teachers and experts of the ECR program denounce the rejection of a program which they consider to be extremely valid. They dispute the validity of the consultations carried out by the government. They feel they were under-represented among respondents. As for the online survey, it is in no way scientific. Nothing prevented people from answering several times, argues Line Dubé, interim president of the Quebec Association in Ethics and Religious Culture (AQECR). “If you build a program on the results of such a biased survey, what does that say about the program? »She said to To have to.
This whole operation “smacks of political control”, according to her. The teacher deplores that the government is trying to define a Quebec identity that we could “define in a few words and which would be lasting”. “Is there a typical ideal of what a good Quebecer would be? It seems that we will have the answer on Sunday, ”adds Line Dubé.
Marc Chevarie, ex-president of the AQECR, fears that the new version of the program seeks to “distinguish between Us and Them, between believers and unbelievers, when they must be put into dialogue”.
Louis Rousseau, professor emeritus in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), also believes that the government throws the baby out with the bathwater. He fears that the new ECR course will become a collection of advice for children in practical situations, for example on the use of digital technology, from a personal finance point of view or in matters of sexuality.
The government is seeking to eliminate religion from the educational program “even if new religious diversity is part of reality, whether we like it or not,” he insists. “With the referendum failure, the enemy is no longer the English. We need a fundamental opponent, and it has become religion. “
Louis Rousseau is crossing his fingers that the overhaul of the ECR course makes room for indigenous traditions, essential in a program on Quebec citizenship, according to him.