Emerging from his silence, Minister of Education Bernard Drainville is proposing an intervention plan centered on seven priorities. These priorities should be part of a global perspective aimed at revaluing education and thoroughly reviewing the orientations of secondary school, which itself is linked to primary school.
Major changes are needed at this level and they have been abundantly documented, among others by the Superior Council of Education in its 2017 report entitled A school rich in all its students. Moreover, Minister Drainville, without setting up a new Parent commission, should draw inspiration from the spirit and work of this commission.
It is important that he set up a fundamental research group that channels the reflections of all circles on the future of Quebec secondary schools. This research and reflection group would be invited to make recommendations and would provide the new reference document on secondary school. It would continue its work in parallel with the day-to-day management of the schools, without forgetting the improvements that could be identified and brought about within the framework of the next negotiations of collective agreements for education personnel.
Times are changing, but it would be good if the Minister and his team managed to reconnect with the fervor of the beginnings of the Quiet Revolution and the new schools then proposed by the Gérin-Lajoie, Rocher, Tremblay and others. The last international meeting in Montreal on biodiversity emphasized the necessary contribution of the education systems of each country, and therefore of educators, in the development of a new vision of the relationship between humanity and nature.
The time has come to value education and the people who make it a profession. These perform an irreplaceable task as sources of inspiration and awakeners of consciousness. The Quebec state and society as a whole must play their role in promoting education.
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