(Laval) After months of infrequent interviews, Education Secretary Bernard Drainville finally breaks the ice on Thursday, this morning of a winter storm. He announces seven priorities that will guide his mandate to improve educational outcomes, including creating a new “fast track” to the teaching profession.
Posted at 8:00 am
Mr. Drainville, who will be present Thursday and Friday as part of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) pre-meeting in Laval, will hold a press conference in the morning to clarify his vision in education to improve educational success.
There are many problems in education, as La Presse reported again in recent days, when almost half of youngsters in lower secondary school have failed the uniform French exam in certain school service centers. In elementary school, struggling students sometimes go straight from the fifth grade of elementary school to high school simply because they repeated a grade.
Bernard Drainville first promises to “restore the fast track to teaching,” an option to add to the qualifying 60-credit master’s degree already offered in universities.
“There is an urgent need to find solutions and show flexibility to alleviate the shortage of qualified teachers in the network. […] This diploma is based on best practice in the recognition of prior learning. It enables holders of a qualifying higher education entrance qualification to obtain the teaching diploma and thus the legal qualification,” explains the minister in a press release.
Mr. Drainville also wants to increase the number of public schools that offer specific programs — such as arts or physical education majors — which he says promotes the educational success of students who choose projects that match their interests. “The aim is for all public secondary school students in as many schools as possible to have access to this type of program if they wish,” the minister said.
Regarding the teaching of French – a priority already included in the CAQ’s electoral platform – Bernard Drainville does not specify how he intends to tackle this issue. First, the minister stated that “the status quo for teaching this subject is unacceptable”. He then adds that “French is a government priority” and that “the Ministry [de l’Éducation] will work to find possible solutions to stem the decline of written French”.
More money for school renovations
As Treasury Secretary Eric Girard is set to present Quebec’s 2023-2024 budget later this spring, Bernard Drainville is raising expectations by announcing that the government will approve the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) budget for school renovation and construction will increase again.
But beyond the problems of school infrastructure, there are just as many challenges in the classroom, where there is often a lack of professionals to support teachers with students with learning difficulties. Bernard Drainville promises to expand the scope of pilots of “classroom aids,” which would “allow teachers to have another adult with them in the classroom to help them meet the day-to-day needs of the students.”
Finally, the education minister reaffirmed his party’s commitment to improving vocational training provision at secondary level in order to qualify 30,000 additional students in this sector over the next four years. Mr. Drainville also promises to improve the collection and sharing of data in his department, which doesn’t always have a clear picture of the situation on its own network.