Incomplete program, insufficient teaching materials and poorly trained teachers: the start seems difficult for the new course Culture and Quebec citizenship, which is taught in the form of pilot projects in schools this year. A brake is already claimed, while the “omerta” surrounding this experiment is also denounced.
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This new course, which will replace the controversial Ethics and Religious Culture program, is being tested this year in some thirty Quebec schools. Quebec is aiming for its implementation in all primary and secondary establishments from the start of the 2023 school year.
However, this is an “unrealistic political command”, says a source involved in the deployment of new content.
“The pilot schools don’t have a lot of equipment, everything has to be built. The training is coming in dribs and drabs,” she laments. A draft version of the program is available online, but entire sections remain to be completed.
The story from teachers participating in the experiments is similar. “For a pilot project to be effective, a written program must be implemented. The Ministry finishes the writing of the program during the pilot projects. Despite all the goodwill […]if you want to be able to train in a coherent way, you have to postpone for a year, ”says a teacher.
Line Dubé, president of the Quebec Association for Ethics and Religious Culture, agrees. “It’s way too fast, it doesn’t work. We would have to postpone for at least a year to have time to get it right. Where is the emergency?” she asks.
The latter recalls that the Ethics and Religious Culture course, whose implementation had not been smooth, had been tested for two full years before its large-scale implementation.
Sexuality education, which will now be taught as part of this new course, also raises several concerns, adds Ms.me Dube.
At the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ), we also see that the beginnings are difficult for the new course.
Teachers participating in the pilot projects were expecting “turnkey” educational content, but no evaluation and learning situation is yet available, deplores its president, Josée Scalabrini. “We are building the plane in full flight,” she says.
At the Autonomous Federation of Education, it is estimated that this reform deserves a brake in order to complete the writing of the program and the teaching material associated with it.
“Omerta”
Josée Scalabrini is also surprised by the lack of transparency surrounding these pilot projects.
The Federation had to make an access to information request to obtain the list of participating schools, while the teachers who experimented with the program had to sign confidentiality agreements.
“This is the first time that i see this. I’ve seen confidentiality agreements when a program is in development, but not when you’re in pilot projects. I never knew it went that far. It’s omerta. It’s very surprising,” says Mr.me Scalabrini.
At the Ministry of Education, it is indicated that the confidentiality agreements have been concluded with the teachers “to prevent the information shared from being disclosed externally by anyone other than the Ministry itself”.
The provisional programs which are the subject of pilot projects at the elementary and secondary levels have been made public “for the sake of transparency and in an exceptional manner”, underlines its spokesperson, Bryan St-Louis.
The Ministry still plans the entry into force of the new program for the start of the 2023 school year, he adds.
Quebec culture and citizenship
- This course will replace that of Ethics and Religious Culture, taught since 2008.
- It will be part of the subject schedule from the beginning of primary to the end of secondary (except in third secondary).
- This new course aims to prepare young Quebecers to exercise their citizenship, through the practice of dialogue and the development of critical thinking.
- In primary school, self-knowledge, relationships with others, digital education, identity and ecological transition could be among the topics covered.
- In secondary school, students could discuss public institutions, social diversity, identity transformation, rights and responsibilities, and egalitarian relationships.
- Sexuality education content will be integrated into these different themes.
- A provisional primary and secondary program is being tested this year in 32 schools in the form of pilot projects.