By the end of the election campaign, the editorial team of the To have to will offer an analysis of the main commitments of political parties on themes that concern all Quebecers. Today: education.
In the literacy championship, Quebec is the big loser. It comes last in Canada with 46% of its population considered “functionally illiterate” – unable to understand long and complex texts. In the graduation marathon, Quebec is also at the back of the group, with a still unexplained and very serious gap of nearly 10 percentage points between girls and boys, the latter suffering from the decline. The shortage of staff is hitting the school network hard, to the point that at least 700 teachers were missing in primary and secondary schools on the first day of school. Schools are falling apart. The education budgets allocated to pupils in difficulty are constantly increasing, which is not without effect on the classes. In our “three-speed” education system, inequalities continue to widen, which has a direct impact on everyone’s chances of success.
No, the portrait is not radiant. Without dramatizing, we can say that our education network is suffering. Although it is the second most important budget item, after health, spending continues to increase, as evidenced by the budget plan unveiled by the CAQ government last March. But a little like we see in health, the gigantism of the machine combined with major changes in its clientele – students and teachers included – ended up getting the better of not only the diagnosis – what is happening so that so many students in difficulty are added year after year? — but also promising solutions.
How to explain that education has been almost absent from the discourse of political party leaders, despite the fact that it indeed occupies a noble space in each of their electoral platforms? Perhaps due to immense discomfort? The inability to talk about a problem that has taken on the appearance of a detestable catchphrase: things are bad in education, and despite all the efforts made over the past decades, the situation has not improved considerably. Perhaps the desire not to bore voters with a topic that is not a priority in the polls? Indeed, health, the cost of living and environmental considerations overtake education as issues of concern to citizens. But… don’t politicians encourage generalized indifference by themselves silencing an issue that should inflame the stands?
However, the electoral platforms of the five main parties propose measures which testify – in theory at least – to the importance they place on education. Too bad it doesn’t make the “clip” of the day! The majority of the measures put forward are concrete, because it sells better to promise 30 more minutes of physical activity, a new school or a supplement for the purchase of school supplies than to embark on the promise of yet another reform aimed at improving academic success. In this regard, note the courage of the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, which have inscribed black and white in their platforms the great taboo of the Quebec school network, namely the public funding of private schools and the segregation caused by the selective practices now extended to two networks.
In the fight against dropping out of school, a problem to which we will have to pay a lot of attention in the coming years, in the destructive wake of the pandemic, the Coalition avenir Québec proposes to increase professional services for students in difficulty by through a virtual platform. This idea has the merit of also responding to the challenge of resource availability. Québec solidaire suggests a “floor of professionals”, a laudable idea, but which will fall flat if the shortage of personnel comes to thwart it. The Conservative Party of Quebec announces a “strategy” aimed at improving graduation rates in the sectors (professional and technical) directly intended to meet the needs of employers. It is the only party which, it should be noted, promises a vast project tackling illiteracy. The Liberals hope to make the tutoring program permanent.
Will Quebecers elect a party that will be concerned with setting everything in motion so that the quality of our public services, particularly in the social field, stops deteriorating, despite the billions invested in them? Much has been said about the dilapidated state of school buildings, and this fragility also extends to colleges and universities. Some parties are more likely to cause the new constructions they dream of for the students than the problems raging behind the walls. There is however a very fragile education there, which we will not strengthen with concrete and mortar.