Education unions, university professors and defenders of public schools are asking Minister Bernard Drainville to abandon his reform.
Bill 23 of the Minister of Education amends the Public Education Act and, among other things, creates the National Institute of Excellence in Education (INEE).
It allows the government to appoint the general director of the School Service Centers, allows the government to enact standards under which certain educational services may be provided remotely and authorizes the Minister of Education to provide for compulsory continuing education arrangements. for teachers.
During a joint press conference on Monday, around ten speakers denounced this reform, accusing it in particular of giving too much power to the Minister of Education, of reducing the autonomy of teachers, of ignoring the opinion of educational researchers, to “deprofessionalize” the teaching profession by granting legal authorizations to teach after shorter training courses.
The bill “opens the door wide to distance education,” lamented Brigitte Bilodeau, first vice-president of the Federation of Education Unions (FSE) affiliated with the CSQ.
Mme Bilodeau also criticizes the arrival of the National Institute of Excellence in Education “which will promote certain types of research which will lead teachers to have to adopt so-called effective teaching practices, therefore which will probably call on teachers , technicians, applicators of educational recipes chosen elsewhere. We are going to impose, through the INEE, training in this sense, so teachers lose the autonomy to choose the training that best meets their needs and those of their students. »
The reform “gives teaching authorizations to people who are only registering for training,” denounced Annie-Christine Tardif, vice-president of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE).
If the bill is adopted as is, it will “have the effect of legitimizing direct control by the Minister of Education over university teacher training programs,” lamented Madeleine Pastinelli, president of the Fédération québécoise des professors d’education. university (FQPPU).
“We did not listen to education personnel, we did not listen to teachers, support staff, professionals, we did not listen to academics, we did not listen to researchers, we did not listen to the opposition. We did not listen to all those who had things to say, who are actors, and who took elements to improve the bill which does not meet expectations,” concluded the president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec ( CSQ), Éric Gingras.