Two days before the start of the academic year, the union of professors at Laval University says it is in the dark and calls for a clear plan from Quebec for the winter session of 2022.
“The session will begin and we have no news from the minister [de l’Enseignement supérieur], Danielle McCann ”, deplores Louis-Philippe Lampron, president of the union of professors at Laval University.
On Monday, students from across the province will begin their university session online. Everyone can be back on campus from January 17, but faced with the dazzling wave of the fifth wave, Quebec last Friday authorized universities to postpone their face-to-face return to January 31.
Université Laval has given itself this leeway. Beyond these three weeks, the union is in total darkness.
“What we expect [du ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur], it is a latitude and a flexibility. University education cannot be determined by the week. It is not true that to switch online a course that is intended to be given in person or vice versa, it is done by shouting “chisel”. It was not because we did it when the bomb exploded in March 2020 that it was something desirable, ”said Mr. Lampron.
The professor at the law school also fears that the government will wait until the end of January before giving its directives on whether or not to maintain online courses. Despite the technological learning acquired during the previous sessions, “you have to give yourself the time to do things correctly. ”
“An in-person course cannot be delivered the same way as an online course. Professors, lecturers and students need time to adapt, ”says Lampron.
In CEGEPs too, there is uncertainty. In interview with Press, the president of the Quebec College Student Federation, Samuel Vaillancourt, testified that it is time for Minister Danielle McCann to address the students. The CEGEP Teachers’ Federation is also afraid of a face-to-face return by January 24, the date on which most students will have resumed classes.