During the holidays, the editorial team continues its reflection on the individual and collective challenges that will shape our world in the coming years from the perspective of solutions, as far as possible. Today: education.
The year 2023 ends with the great heartbreaks in the world of education, which we apparently only manage to address by addressing the long list of problems that arise. Finally, there is no hope of a resumption of classes in January, after laborious days when teachers swapped the classroom for the street. Let us hope for the next year that we can cure education of the insidious evil that afflicts it, that is to say that it will no longer be scrutinized in terms of its problems rather than its immense strengths.
Isn’t valuing school first trying to speak about it in laudatory terms? At the very beginning of the list of victories, let us celebrate the simple fact that the children of Quebec are not among the 250 million unschooled children wandering the globe. UNESCO, whose general director, Audrey Azoulay, decrees that “education is in a state of emergency”, unfortunately sees this number increasing, largely due to the massive exclusion of girls and young women from education. education in Afghanistan. While bombs are plaguing certain school districts around the world, the right to education remains a poorly valued privilege here on earth.
Why do we have so much trouble at our school? François Legault’s government promises a revolution with its Bill 23, adopted while education union members were campaigning outside for better working conditions. In this structural reform project, we especially see the emergence of an immense thirst for centralization. On the school floor, teachers describe a daily life that is almost impossible to face, with classes made up of such different profiles that it is difficult to satisfy them all. Has the latest school adaptation policy, launched by former Minister of Education François Legault in 1999, delivered all its fruits? Have we used the concept of integration at all costs, whose principle of integrating disabled students and students with learning difficulties into ordinary classes remains noble, but no longer passes the test of reality? This is a major question that Quebec will have to answer.
The world of school is constantly evolving, just like society. The profile of children has obviously changed. From now on, students walk through their classrooms plagued by anxiety disorders at an early age. They consume so much screen time at home that their need to move is great and their ability to pay attention is limited. Whereas in the past they adapted to the needs and demands of adults, now they are modeled more according to a formula where it is the environment that molds itself to their needs. This group of contemporary children has changed, but has the school managed to keep up?
This demanding context calls for meticulously choosing professionals who will help our children become citizens, not only by supporting them in academic success, but also by forging their critical thinking and promoting their personal development. However, the shortage of teachers will force us to practice “flexibility”, the new key word in education, and to relax requirements. Quebec is doing poorly in terms of data collection and monitoring of indicators, but, for an adventure as crucial as the education of its future citizens, it can no longer navigate by sight and operate as if school were a laboratory. We hope that tomorrow will bring a solid mastery of education indicators.
With the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), schools are preparing to embrace another revolution. It would be a shame if AI were perceived as a threat when, well supervised, it could prove to be a solid ally, facilitating the work of teachers and school administrators. Two conditions are however necessary for this positive use, namely solid control on the part of the ministry and, above all, training. Among other lessons from the pandemic, we will remember the technological desert of certain schools and the shameless delay of the public network in this sector, which is as crucial as it is necessary. The school will not be able to arrive unarmed in the face of AI, the workings of which are likely to be mastered by the students well before the teachers.
The challenges of education are among the most grandiose and exhilarating. When it comes to growing minds, we should only approach the issues with a certain intoxication, that which contributes to creating the Quebec of tomorrow. But the excessiveness of the problems has buried, one might say, the small miracles performed every day in a classroom. The feeder school needs us to focus on its successes, which are legion. Without ignoring all the areas that need to be perfected, education could once again become the priority goal in Quebec, the one that deserves all the attention and respect that it deserves. It is an adventure in which the entire society should participate, because in truth, there is no more fundamental social project.