During the study of Bill 23, members of the opposition raised the question of the inequity of education in Quebec in a three-tier system. For lack of arguments, Minister Drainville had to request a temporary suspension to furnish his argument.
We know that, in this bill, the mandate of the Higher Education Council (CSE), which will henceforth bear the name of Higher Education Council, will be transferred to college and university studies, thus leaving the youth sector under the magnifying glass of a new structure called the National Institute of Excellence in Education (INNEE). This organization will bring together specialists who will collect evidence in the field of education. This bill also aims to centralize numerous powers with the minister.
That being said, the opposition denounces the disappearance of the CSE and wonders if this does not have a direct link with previous positions taken by the Council, which denounced the injustice resulting from the three-tier system for public schools. Indeed, the CSE affirmed in a report that Quebec schools were the most unequal in Canada. We know that Minister Drainville categorically denies this reality which is scrutinized by many observers. This observation is also confirmed in the latest ranking of schools which crowns private establishments, which nevertheless play in another league, called “elite”… The disappearance of the CSE is added to that of other organizations which have been dissolved because they disturbed certain ministers, allergic to criticism and in favor of centralization, by subcontracting their responsibilities to agencies which will keep them away from the heavy fire of opposition.
In the educational world, no matter how much we modify structures, if we continue to deny the fact that the three-tier school is a cancer that must be eradicated, the inequality of opportunities will persist and, in the long term, could cause the failure of public schools resulting from the reform of the Parent report.
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