After Bernard Drainville, it was the Prime Minister’s turn to present himself at the microphone of Paul Arcand. In a lengthy interview, Mr. Legault touched lightly on the subject of education (here).
In his opinion, “the 25% of children with learning difficulties are the key if we want to increase academic success”.
A look back at three of his ideas on how we can help them.
Pay private services
According to the Prime Minister, his government has expanded the school network by 2,000 speech and special education teachers. Figures from the Department of Education show that as of 2019, it’s closer to 1,212 professionals who have been hired.
To meet the demand for services to our students, Mr. Legault plans to foot the bill for private consultations. A small bandage for a big wound.
Experience tells me that part of the target clientele does not go to the required services. If there are several vulnerable students, the offer must be made at the school.
The difficult classes
For Mr. Legault, another solution is to place experienced teachers in the most difficult groups or schools.
If we want experienced teachers to take on more difficult tasks, we should, among other things, review their remuneration. At the top of the salary scale, the main motivation is to take on more and more enjoyable tasks as one retires.
An alternative would be to create tasks that facilitate the integration of young teachers in the first five years. In the next 25 years more and more difficult groups could be assigned to the teacher. After all, a fair return to a somewhat “relaxed” task should be granted in the five years before retirement (here).
The mirage
Referring to the existence of a three-speed school, Mr. Legault was content to say that “the public school has to be worked on without concrete projects”.
I’ve heard this suggestion many times. It’s magical thinking. Several schools already offer their students special projects without quotas and at no cost. They will teach these courses just for fun. Learning difficulties, behavioral problems, low motivation and failure are always overrepresented.
Adding special programs for everyone will not change the fact that the private and the selective public come to blackmail students who are “academic performers”. Thus, the burden of inclusion falls on the students in the mainstream class. In addition, this unequal distribution of inclusion weight creates an inequality in the teaching task: the teachers in regular classes see their task as even more difficult.
Before we even go into the distribution of “difficult” groups among colleagues, it would be relevant to answer the following questions: Why is this number so high and how can it be reduced?
Messrs Drainville and Legault are willfully blind on this subject.
