February 6 to 12 was Teachers’ Week, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. This week has been pushed into the background (if not the last) with the “freedom convoys”, the Olympics, and so on.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, thanks the teachers for their dedication… he should praise the last Gauls present in the public education system since they are less present than ever. Indeed, the teaching of the future thinkers of society can be done by anyone with good will in the current system, since unqualified personnel are growing at lightning speed.
The CAQ government can boast of having raised salaries, but what school personnel have been asking for for years is in fact better working conditions. And this was the case long before the health crisis. Money is one thing, but on a daily basis, this does not change the heaviness of the task, the increasingly complex class management, the lack of preparation time, the lack of resources for the students (pedagogical and psychological ), the constant pressure put on teachers to make up for this lack of resources, the lack of consideration for the judgment of the teacher and so on.
Our neighbors have dared to overhaul the public system, in the interest of all citizens. Indeed, Ontario has made education compulsory until the age of 18 and has stopped funding private schools (in Quebec, they are subsidized at 60%).
Miracle! Graduation rates have increased and school dropouts have decreased. Ontario is even in the top 20 of the best education systems in the world. In news, in 2018, we already noted that the Ontario reform had increased the graduation rate from 72% to 84%, while Quebec obtains with difficulty, year after year, a meager 64%.
The government, by maintaining the status quo, supports an ever-widening class divide and favors the wealthy. We are abandoning vulnerable populations, we are contributing, through the current education system, to maintaining inequalities. According to the Superior Council of Education, the Quebec school system is the most unequal in Canada. Why continue on this path? This situation goes against any principle of equal opportunity.
I use the words of Guy Rocher: “If the financing of private schools is so untouchable, it is not rocket science: it is because the decision-makers mainly send their children to private schools. In short, “the Quebec elite saves the Quebec elite at the expense of a [grande] part of the population”.
There must be a deep desire to improve the situation by collaborating with the people on the ground to make concrete, solid and lasting changes. There must be a vision of major change that we will still welcome in 30 years. And to do this, we can easily look at our neighbors.
Freedom begins with understanding what our rights and (especially) our duties are, learning to collaborate by working alongside children from different backgrounds. All of this is learned in an inclusive public school.
So, I ask the question, when will there be a real convoy for equal opportunities, when will there be an uprising for our public education system and for the future of our children? When will a government and a minister have the courage to make these changes? As Camil Bouchard recently wrote, “the ordinary school must become extraordinary. Excellence is for everyone”.