Each additional day of strike harms student success, deplores a parent representative who urges teachers to return to class as soon as satisfactory progress has been made, without waiting until everything is resolved down to the last line.
• Read also – Unlimited general strike: settlement this week unlikely, says FAE
“This is the compromise I want,” said Mélanie Laviolette, president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec.
We must “find an agreement that is satisfactory enough to allow them to come back to class and continue to negotiate and subsequently work on what is wrong, which we will not be able to resolve tomorrow morning,” she says.
Teachers from the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) have been on an indefinite general strike since November 23, while those from the Common Front have declared new strike days from December 8 to 14. The FAE has already indicated that the lifting of the strike will be determined according to criteria established by the Federative Negotiating Council, which could make this decision even if there was no agreement in principle to submit to its members.
- Listen to the interview with Sylvain Martel, strategic advisor and spokesperson for the Regroupement des committees de parents nationaux du Québec, via QUB radio :
Almost four weeks without school
Time is running out, adds Mme Laviolette, while the prospect of reaching an agreement before the holiday season seems more and more improbable.
By the end of the week, nearly half a million students, or more than 40% of the province, will have missed four weeks of school.
“We don’t see the end of this negotiation, we don’t see any progress either. We receive several calls and emails from worried parents. (…) There are students who are playing out their school year, literally,” she says, while recalling that some students had not yet managed to catch up on academic delays caused by the pandemic.
Catch-up measures
Mme Laviolette also expects special remedial measures for students whose teachers are affiliated with the FAE, since the impact on their career is considerable.
“We can’t leave it like this. We cannot make a fringe of students pay because [leurs enseignants] were not associated with the right union,” she says.
Remember that students who attend private schools are not at all affected by the public sector strike movement, while those whose teachers are affiliated with the Common Front have missed six days of class so far.
End-of-year ministerial exams should also be rethought for students affected by the FAE strike, adds Mme The violet. The content could be reduced or the weighting revised downwards, as was the case during the pandemic.
“I don’t think it’s doing students a favor to consider these ministerial tests without a scale or compensation,” she says.
In the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, it is indicated that everything is currently on the table.
“We are currently evaluating all options. We will come back to you for this purpose,” his press secretary, Florence Plourde, simply indicated on Monday.