The propensity for imbalance within the Quebec education system does not take a vacation. The end of classes may have sounded a short time ago, for some secondary school students, it is already time to catch up. But not on the same terms and not at the same price. We are not talking here about the private network which has the freedom to charge for everything as it sees fit, but about the public network.
This is yet another proof, if one more was needed, that the school market denounced by parents and many experts is not an empty slogan, but a weight that weighs randomly on the shoulders of far too many families.
In a report published on Saturday, The duty details how access to this service, which is often crucial to student success and the continuation of their educational career, varies from one school center to another. While some are offering it for free out of concern for fairness, others are asking for $175 to $565 this summer for high school refresher courses in math, English, French, history or science; some face-to-face, others online. These differences in price and conditions are rightly considered unfair — and even harmful — by the parents’ committees, who are urging Quebec to “clean up”.
The Education Act allows institutions to require a financial contribution in return for services offered outside the normal educational framework. This is the case for summer courses. The bills fly away quickly, because these courses mobilize significant resources and energies. To the point that some centers prefer not to offer any, period. They redirect their students to external services, such as School Success, a non-subsidized private establishment that offers distance learning courses.
Asked about the unfair nature of this variable-geometry offer, Bernard Drainville’s firm cautiously indicated to the Duty that he would do “checks”. This warmth is surprising. When he unveiled his seven priorities last January, the still new Minister of Education stated that the “only challenge that [comptait était] academic achievement “. He also recognized that the pandemic had had “effects” calling for the deployment of substantial energies to make up for the accumulated delays.
That there is still no provincial standard governing such an essential gateway as the summer course is in complete contradiction with this objective. This resignation is all the more inconsequential since we learned recently in the Montreal Journal that the “corrections” announced almost a year ago regarding the moderation of grades in secondary ministerial examinations—which can prove disastrous for some students—are still pending.
These artificially swell the ranks of those who have failed. However, as we know, academic success is a road strewn with pitfalls for many adolescents. All failure comes with an effort that nothing can stop. This is why the parents’ committees believe that free summer courses should be considered. Without going that far — all the same there are virtues in charging a reasonable symbolic fee for retaking an exam — it is clear that the Ministère de l’Éducation has a duty to align its practices with the spirit inclusive of the Education Act by ensuring that no family is left behind.
This issue is reminiscent of the financial contributions that childcare services that are more demanding than others allow themselves to charge parents. Last spring, the Ministry of Education established new rules to reduce the gaps and standardize the ratios. But it did so without setting out common principles or planning substantial aid, with the disastrous results that we know.
It also sadly recalls the inequalities created by the disorganized multiplication of special educational programs (PPP) in recent years in secondary schools, and this, at more than variable prices, which can reach thousands of dollars. Last year, the Legault government even resigned itself to taking out its checkbook to iron out disparities that had become indecent, then decreeing free admission for more than 60% of public registrants.
The problem is still not solved. Just over half of public schools currently offer at least one PPP, such as Sport-études or Arts-études. This leaves a lot of young people in the lurch. Minister Drainville wishes to democratize access by forcing all schools to convert to the virtues of these programs, willingly or by force. But if we keep the current billing model, the bill will swell even further and the disparities will inevitably follow.
Social justice—and more specifically educational justice, which is at the heart of the Parent reform—yet requires uniform and universal educational services. In the absence of being able to offer everything, Quebec has a duty to ensure that the public services provided are equivalent everywhere and that support is systematically offered to any family that expresses the need for it. Even in summer.