There has recently been talk, in the pages of the To have to, of a possible inadequacy between the mode of organization of CEGEPs, particularly with regard to the general education they offer, and the students they now welcome. So we are still shoveling into the backyard of the college network — which always has a very broad back — the responsibility of relieving all the ills that overwhelm Quebec’s education system.
However, the success of the student population in CEGEP is prepared from the moment they enter kindergarten, then throughout their 11-year journey at the primary and secondary levels. However, nowhere in the preparatory consultation book for the inter-order exchange meetings held in February 2021 as part of the work of the government project on success in higher education did this fundamental question be addressed. It is with disappointment that we noted the absence of people representing these levels of education during the said meetings.
There is a lot of talk, in the case of the college network, of first semester or first year pedagogy and a lot of pressure is put on the teaching staff to improve the success rates of the courses taken by new students. However, we forget that the problem already exists in a significant way upstream.
Let’s take the time to dissect the numbers. Let us first note the low graduation and qualification rate in secondary school: for the cohort that began their journey in 2012 — and therefore finished it before the pandemic — this rate was 71.3% after five years. , 78.9% after six years and 81.7% after seven years. This means that nearly one person in five never obtains the diploma necessary to be admitted to CEGEP.
The statistics turn out to be even less brilliant in the case of the unique ministerial tests of 4e and 5e secondary, since approximately one in four students fails there, including in French (for this subject, between 2013 and 2018, in the public network, the success rate of the test of 5e secondary fluctuated between 74% and 76%, except in 2014, when it was 69%).
This observation leads us to consider that the duty to raise the bar should not fall solely on higher education institutions and that, consequently, suggestions such as the formation of groups comprising only students from a single program in general education courses, to the detriment of the role that education plays in the transmission of the common cultural fund (advocated by the Parent report), do not appear to us to be relevant.
In addition, in our view, the statistics presented above, particularly those relating to ministerial secondary French examinations, explain the lower success rates observed in general college education courses more than the hypothesis of a education ill-suited to the reality of young people today, which does not hold water with regard to the professionalism of the teaching body and the autonomy it has to meet the needs of the latter.
Breaking the sugar on the backs of CEGEPs, a unique model in the world, which has proven itself and which is the envy of many companies, is too easy a solution when it comes time to explain the difficulties experienced by student populations. It is time to begin a global reflection targeting the entire Quebec educational network, from early childhood to university.