(Quebec) A PQ government would prohibit all publicly funded schools, public or private, from selecting students in particular programs based on grades or behavior.
This proposal is part of a detailed set of resolutions on education obtained by The Canadian Press which will be debated this weekend at the National Council of the Parti Québécois (PQ), in Saint-Hyacinthe.
This gathering will include workshops on equal opportunities, on upgrading the role of the teacher, as well as on preschool development and support for adolescents.
The PQ even took the opportunity to wink at its option in its set of proposals by quoting former minister Jacques-Yvan Morin: “education is the key to sovereignty”.
Private schools
In addition, the PQ, which had already positioned itself for the end of subsidies to private schools, this time qualifies its position by proposing to “nationalize” them.
Thus, if he takes power in 2026, he would offer all subsidized private schools to be 100% funded and then become “contracted”, or to remain non-subsidized and gradually lose their funding – a little such as CHSLDs, whether approved or not.
The current model of subsidized private schools “deepens inequalities, divides our society and goes against the fundamental values of fairness and equal opportunities of the Parti Québécois,” we can read.
In addition, a PQ government would commit to ensuring that all state-funded schools offer a choice of specific projects. On the other hand, we could no longer exclude students based on their academic results or their behavior.
With this bouquet of measures, the PQ aims to ensure equal opportunities and wants to put an end to what is nicknamed “the three-speed school”: a school that reproduces inequalities, where “students receive a differentiated education according to their social origin or their academic performance,” we can read.
By three-tier school, we mean either a public school with a regular program, a selective public school with special programs, or even a private school.
In a bulletin in May 2023, the Quebec Observatory of Inequalities stated: “if families do not worry about their child’s choice of school and program when transitioning from primary to secondary, they risk seeing them be confronted with difficulties in accessing and succeeding in post-secondary education. »
The Superior Council of Education concluded in a report that Quebec schools were the most unequal in the country.
Even the UN is now asking Canada to inform it “on the measures taken to ensure students equal access to education within the three-tier school system in Quebec.”
However, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, has already decided that he does not intend to put an end to three-tier schools.
Revalorize the profession
To upgrade the teaching profession, the PQ proposes in particular to improve working conditions by reducing student/teacher ratios, but also by setting up an independent committee to resolve the shortage of teachers by proposing measures.
Finally, in the workshop on preschool development and support for adolescents, the PQ wants, among other things, to improve the detection of mental health problems and their treatment.
In addition to the ban on personal electronic devices in the classroom, which it has defended for a long time, the party proposes wants to better analyze knowledge on the use of screens in schools, and produce ministerial directives on this issue, to better equip young people and families.
The PQ is currently galvanized by the polls and its recent victory against the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in the complementary election for the riding of Jean-Talon.
This week, the party presented the financial report for a sovereign Quebec which has been widely debated in the news.