During the week of December 11th, all unions negotiating with the government will go on strike. This coincides with the end of the school calendar in CEGEPs and the examination period, which may be interrupted. The students’ academic careers could also be affected or even jeopardized.
In an interview with Tout un matin, Bernard Tremblay, president and CEO of the Fédération des cégeps, raises a puzzle.
He remembers that there are two learning units at the university. These are two separate lessons, each of which must cover 82 school days. If we try to place them between the end of August and Christmas […] With the strikes that we had, the announced strikes and the multi-day student strikes in the fall, we were really stuck.
What to do?
For the Director General of the Fédération des cégeps, we must consider either extending the meeting beyond Christmas or finding an alternative, such as resorting to an exceptional measure that could allow the meeting to be shortened.
According to the provisions of the higher education study regime, it is possible for the CEGEP to ask the Ministry of Education to shorten the length of the school calendar, but people would not happily advocate for shortening the school calendar in the session.
There is a consideration that needs to be made about the CEGEP by CEGEP school calendar.
The other option would be to extend the session beyond December, but this will not be without consequences for students who are at the end of their training. This could mean delayed access to the university, restrictions related to study permits for international students and an extension of the rental agreement, with all the financial problems this would entail, notes Mr. Tremblay.
In addition, the extension of the meeting until January also means a postponement of the meeting that was supposed to start at the beginning of the year, noted Mr. Tremblay.
The unified French test scheduled for December 13th is compulsory to receive your Diploma of Collegial Studies. This review could also be jeopardized if the announced strike were to take place. Nothing has been communicated on this subject and we will have to think about postponing this test, concludes Bernard Tremblay.