The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, will be able to make adjustments to his academic catch-up plan, but not right away.
“I will have a much more complete picture at the beginning of February and at that time, we will adjust if necessary,” he said during a press scrum in Sherbrooke on Wednesday.
Mr. Drainville was reacting to the fears, relayed in the media, of parents of children with learning difficulties who are unable to obtain help from a tutor.
The CAQ elected official invited the population to wait “a little bit” before declaring the failure of his educational catch-up plan with 300 million dollars. “Listen, let’s wait a little bit to have a more complete picture,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of CAQ deputies in anticipation of the resumption of parliamentary work.
Parents of children selected for catch-up workshops led by teachers, retired teachers or teaching students will be contacted throughout the week, he said, full of “confidence”. “We want the children to catch up as much as possible, to not pay the price of strikes, in any case as little as possible. So, we want to bring them to success with considerable means,” he continued.
One thing is certain, the offer of services “will not be equal everywhere, in all schools,” however, reiterated Mr. Drainville.
The minister refrained from saying whether the mixed, even frosty, reception in places given by members of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) to the agreement in principle reached between the Quebec government and their federation union could explain the difficulties in recruiting tutors who will support, according to the catch-up plan, students in difficulty outside normal school hours.
The government offer made to professionals in the education network is not “perfect[e] ”, but signs “very good progress for teachers and staff,” said Mr. Drainville.
Further details will follow.