The children of a freshly renovated elementary school in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve received a visit from the Prime Minister on Monday morning, an opportunity for them to see Youppi and eat chocolate. François Legault nevertheless admitted that many children in the metropolis are in schools that offer “unacceptable conditions”.
Posted at 3:01 p.m.
François Legault was visiting Saint-Nom-de-Jésus school on Monday, but before distributing chocolates to students, he met the president of the Alliance des profs de Montréal, which represents teachers at the school service center from Montreal.
Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre described the meeting as “surprising”. The school where the meeting was held is part of the “10% of schools [de Montréal] which are in acceptable condition. The CSSDM confirms that 90% of its schools are in poor condition.
“The Prime Minister thought it was 50% of our schools that are dilapidated,” said Ms.me Beauvais St-Pierre, for whom this lack of knowledge of the Prime Minister illustrates the “gap” between reality and the politician’s perception of reality.
In front of journalists, François Legault acknowledged that “there is work to be done on the education side”.
“I agree that many schools, especially in Montreal, offer unacceptable conditions. We are talking about 50% of schools that are not up to standard, ”said François Legault.
According to the 2022-2032 Quebec Infrastructure Plan, 59% of school buildings are considered to be in poor or very poor condition. A year earlier, this proportion was 56%.
The legacy of the previous Liberal government is to blame for the dilapidated state of schools, said the Prime Minister. The shortage of labor in the construction sector makes it more difficult to upgrade buildings, he also explained. “We are in the process of catching up […]we are going as quickly as possible, ”added Mr. Legault.
The hiring of several unqualified educators in school daycare services is not “ideal”, acknowledged the Prime Minister. The Press revealed Monday morning that Quebec has no target to train these educators, who often spend several hours a day with the children.
“We are in a situation where we are short of educators, so we have to accept for a while that some educators do not have all the training. It’s not ideal, it’s not what we want, but there is no other long-term solution, ”said François Legault.
Visit of Youppi and distribution of chocolate
François Legault was in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to distribute chocolates and hockey cards to students. It was Youppi who made his first entrance into the gymnasium of the Saint-Nom-de-Jésus school, where a few dozen young people were waiting for the Prime Minister.
“It’s Mr. Legault!” exclaimed enthusiastically a little 2and year seeing the Canadiens mascot. “No, it’s not him Mr. Legault,” objected his friend.
The Prime Minister finally made his entrance, listened to a song that the young people had prepared for him, distributed Easter chocolates, asked questions on the fly. “Can you name some Canadian players for me? he asked a few students. His passion for hockey was not shared by all. “Messi? “, advanced a young person.
“It’s the fun part of my job, coming to chat with the children,” the Prime Minister explained to journalists a little later.
Charles, a sixth-grade student, nevertheless emerged disappointed from his meeting of a few minutes with the Prime Minister. “Is there systemic racism? “, he asked François Legault.
“He told me that there really wasn’t one, that it was a system. It’s not the same thing. There is systemic racism, he just doesn’t want to admit it,” the 11-year-old concluded.