Former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau is not pleased with the state of education in Quebec. In particular, M. Parizeau is shocked - and rightly so - to have discovered that in one French speaking Montreal school board, just under 36% of young boys receive a high school diploma in the normal period of five years. This, compared with 67% of boys in the English speaking board that covers roughly the same territory. Even after allowing an extra two years the figures are 49% and 79% of boys graduating, in French and English boards respectively. Apparently the figures for other boards throughout the province are similar.
While some might be tempted to make claims that this is a result of the Quebec language laws that force the majority of allophone children to attend French schools, M. Parizeau disagrees. He feels that the statistics from regions outside Montreal (i.e. areas with fewer non-francophone students) bear out his concern with the education children are receiving here in Quebec public schools.
Instead, he says there must be some profound problem with our education system. And he wants the Ministry (the Ministère de l’education du loisir et du sport, or “MELS”) to answer for it.
In an open letter to Le Journal de Montréal this week, M. Parizeau was very clear about his displeasure. He concludes with the following:
Pourquoi les résultats du système anglais d’enseignement sont-ils à ce point meilleurs que ceux du système français ? On veut savoir et il n’ a que le ministère de l’Éducation qui puisse répondre. Depuis des années, par le truchement d’une succession de ministres des deux bords, dans un charabia brumeux, avec la complicité des facultés d’éducation, on s’est servi des jeunes comme de cobayes, on a imposé aux enseignants des contorsions intellectuelles étonnantes. Devant le gâchis que ses propres chiffres révèlent, il faut qu’il s’explique, le «Ministère». Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé ? Qu’est-ce qui se passe?
My translation:
Why are the results from the English education sector so much better than those of the French system? We want to know and only the Ministry of Education can supply the answer. For years, through the intermediaries of a succession of Ministers from both sides (i.e. the Liberal Party & the Parti-Québecois,) in a fog of jargon, and with the complicity of the faculties of education, we have made guinea pigs of our youth, we have imposed upon teachers the most shocking of intellectual contortions. Before the waste that its own statistics reveal, the Ministry must explain itself. What is going on? What is going on?
(My apologies to M. Parizeau, it sounds much more impressive in French…)
Reactions to M. Parizeau’s demands for an explanation reveal a climate in which few are interested in digging for the answers. Mario Dumont, leader of the opposition, claims the difference in graduation rates is due to a greater sense of belonging in the English sector, and to more parents getting involved with the schools their children attend. He also feels that there is too much bureaucracy, and that municipalities and local chambers of commerce need to become more involved with the schools in their communities.
Réjean Parent, president of la Centrale des syndicats du Québec (the union representing much of our teaching and support staff) agreed that we do need to have smaller class sizes and to work harder at identifying students with learning difficulties if we want to lower the drop-out rates. He also underlined the fact that M. Parizeau was Premier when the curriculum reform was begun.
La Fédération québécoise des directions d’établissement d’enseignement said in its press release that M. Parizeau’s analysis of the data was not deep enough, claiming that he had neglected such factors as socio-economic status, and that simply looking at the language spoken at home or school was not enough.
Other than a report on CTV’s morning news in Montreal, there seems to be no reaction from the anglophone community at all.
Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne wagged her finger at M. Parizeau for publishing his open letter. She said that he denigrated the public education system by pointing out the superior performance of the private sector without proposing any solutions. Mme. Courchesne also pointed to greater parental involvement in the English schools. French schools, she said, do not enjoy the uniformity of community that their counterparts do. Of course, that would seem to be hinting at an “ethnic” situation in the French schools, despite the fact that M. Parizeau claims there are similar failures in regions outside Montreal, regions whose communities might in fact be more homogenous than the English community in Montreal.
Is the root of the problem to be found in the Quebec Education Program? In the lack of parental involvement in French schools? In a language law that corrals immigrant children in French schools regardless of their mother tongue and their ability to understand French?
One thing is certain, I’m glad my kids are not attending public school in French!
This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!
