Teachers denounce the too great place that evaluation takes at school and join their voices in asking for a return to two report cards rather than three, an exceptional measure which had been put in place during the pandemic. Officials from the Ministry of Education would be “very open”, says a union of teachers, who believe that the ball is in the court of Minister Drainville.
“We are rushing the evaluation at the moment, underlines Léandre Lapointe, vice-president of the National Federation of Quebec Teachers (FNEEQ-CSN) and responsible for the private group. There is a way to reduce the number of report cards while maintaining, or even increasing, the number of communications to parents, and that is what we would like. »
The population sees the bulletin “as a verdict”, he adds, and reducing the number can take away a weight. “Instead of telling the student this is what you are worth, we will tell him this is what you have to do to become better. It changes the whole perspective and it promotes motivation, ”he believes.
The duty recently wrote that the Federation of Private Education Institutions (FEEP) and the Association of Directors and General Managers of Private Education Schools in Quebec (ADIGESEP) are asking for a return to two bulletins.
The union adopted a resolution at the end of November asking “the Ministry of Education to modify the basic school system in favor of a return to the transitional system, ie to permanently establish a school calendar divided into two stages”.
In December, the FNEEQ-CSN met with officials from the Ministry of Education. “They are very open, they find it interesting. But the reservation they had was not to reduce the number of communications to parents, “said Léandre Lapointe. The union also raised the issue with Minister Bernard Drainville. “We didn’t get an official response, but he heard us,” he said.
For its part, the minister’s office told the To have to this week that “the bulletin is above all an information tool for parents in order to give them details on the educational progress of their children”. “It is very important for us to be sensitive to the concerns of parents. There are no plans at this time to return to two bulletins”.
The Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec advocated a return to three report cards during consultations held last winter by the former Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge. Contacted by The duty Friday to know if its position has evolved, the Federation did not wish to react immediately. A general council will be held on February 4 to “update” their orientations and there will be a workshop on the needs of parents regarding assessment and communications.
Thought to have
“We’re going to learn by heart for the exam, but we’re going to lose knowledge over time because it’s a bit of brainwashing,” comments Valérie Baldacchino, science and technology teacher at the Collège de Montréal. While the skills that have been worked on, for which there has been feedback and the process has been better integrated, it is more likely to remain in the long term.
Sébastien Serre, a teacher at Saint-Sacrement College, notes for his part that there are evaluations “virtually every week”, which “wastes precious time” and increases anxiety among students. “We want to take the time to experience the material with them,” he says. Students have difficulty differentiating between assessments that are truly meaningful, such as at the end of a stage, and small assessments.”
Having two newsletters also pleased many members of the Federation of Teachers’ Unions (FSE-CSQ), which represents more than 87,000 teachers in the public network.
“Is assessment there to inform parents and help students in their learning, or is it there for bureaucracy? launches the president, Josée Scalabrini. It has become a panoply of statistics to put schools, provinces and countries in competition”.
We must “take the time to do things correctly”, believes the union. The question will be addressed at a colloquium in May and the official position of the FSE-CSQ will be clarified at that time.