Bernard Drainville took charge of the Department of Education and said he would focus on actions that get results. But you have to know that both Minister Roberge and the 1,000 or so officers of this public body have done everything they can to prevent their performance being evaluated in recent years.
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Think of the famous school ventilation saga, where the protocol for classroom CO2 measurements was designed without scientific consideration to ensure reassuring results were achieved. There is also the promise of a four-year kindergarten, the number of which never reached the expected number and whose costs so exploded that the ministry stopped counting them.
The weakness of the MEQ strategic plan
This culture of inefficiency is coupled with avoidance of accountability. The best example is the MEQ strategic plan. In 2018, L’actualité magazine revealed that the latter was among the government’s worst performers at 21%. Therefore, this department does not keep statistics on important elements such as the number of teachers who leave the profession without fully retiring. When it comes to human resource management, if MEQ officers worked for a private company, they would have been fired long ago.
Likewise, we refuse to collect data on the number of students graduating from high school in five years. We prefer to embellish the whole thing by acquiring various diplomas or certificates over the course of seven years.
Management by results, therefore, does not seem to apply to our senior decision-makers in education, and according to many experts, this strategic plan does not provide a solid basis for effective public accountability.
What to do with this strategic plan?
The current strategic plan of the MEQ expires in 2023. It seems obvious that Secretary Drainville will need to draw on expertise outside of his senior officials to come up with a new plan. It should bring together stakeholders from the school community, but also experts in administrative management of public institutions. The objectives of the plan need to be the subject of broad debate, rather than the closed-door consultations recommended by Minister Roberge, if we are to achieve the consensus needed for its implementation.
If education is the CAQ government’s priority, that desire must be translated into a clear, concise, and effective strategic plan. Otherwise, if we are content to run the MEQ in a way that makes it look politically good, as is all too often the case, the school network will continue to atrophy and those who work there will seek more and more—for good reason. to leave it.
Luc Papineau, Teacher, The Ascension