Education to become ‘ national priority’: premier
New history course will reflect province’s diversity, minister says
Next week’s provincial budget will send a very strong signal that education spending is a “national priority ” for the Liberal government, Premier Philippe Couillard said Friday.
Meanwhile, Couillard’s education minister is downplaying complaints Quebec’s new high school history courses give minorities short shrift, stressing that whatever course is eventually approved will reflect the diversity — including linguistic — of Quebec.
For now, the course is only at the pilot project stage, said Education Minister Sébastien Proulx.
Proulx was beaming for another reason, when he attended Couillard’s keynote speech to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal at the Sheraton Centre. The premier came packing good news, a promise of fresh cash for the province’s strapped education system.
Insisting Quebec did not actually cut education spending over the last few years — only reduced its rate of growth — Couillard told the sold- out crowd of 800 that he knows the restraints created “difficult situations” in the school system. Sacrifices were required.
Things will start changing next Thursday, when Finance Minister Carlos Leitão brings down the 2016- 2017 provincial budget, he said.
“The budget we will present next week will give a very strong signal,” Couillard said, answering board of trade president Michel Leblanc in a staged question- and- answer session after his speech.
“There will be a very strong, financially detailed number on the level of investment in education but also a horizon for the subsequent years. The education network will know the pace of budgetary increases over the next three or four years.”
Meeting reporters later, Proulx — who recently took over the education ministry from an ailing Pierre Moreau — welcomed the news.
“Clearly, people will see we are getting back to an agenda which should be ours, that is to say education as a priority,” Proulx said. “This ( budget) will mark a moment in time.”
Proulx, however, had to respond to complaints anglophones and minorities appear to be excluded in a new high school history program being rolled out as a pilot course for Secondary 3 students.
The complaint was made by John Commins, a high school teacher for 27 years, in an opinion piece published in the Montreal Gazette on Friday.
He was part of the teachers’ committee that vetted the previous Quebec high school history program.
Commins said the proposed program represents French Canadians as a united, homogeneous group in perpetual conflict with the rest of English Canada and will make students who aren’t from the francophone majority feel excluded.
Proulx stressed the program, drafted by the old Parti Québécois government, is currently at the pilot project stage and subject to change.
“It’s clear and I tell you sincerely we will put forward a program that is respectful of the diversity, which will be representative of our reality and history,” Proulx told reporters.
“I know there will be changes in the coming weeks and we will take the time to ensure that the program represents who we are.”
Couillard’s promise to make education a priority reflects the government’s efforts to shift the focus away from its image as uncaring and obsessed with austerity.
It started in November when, presenting an economic update, Leitão announced an additional $ 80 million in education spending to assist teachers in the classroom.
That was to make up for the peanuts education got in the 2015 provincial budget, where Leitão increased education spending by a mere 0.2 per cent, a figure that didn’t cover inflation and the cost of normal growth of the system.
The spending restrictions — as well as other measures — allowed Leitão to balance the province’s books for the first time in six years but there have been legions of horror stories since about the effects of spending constraints.
Besides forcing school boards, CEGEPs and universities to make difficult choices about staffing and programs, there have been reports of mould in schools, leaky roofs and rundown equipment.
The opposition Coalition Avenir Québec party recently obtained a government study revealing 478 Quebec elementary and high school buildings are in dire need of repair.
In the case of 55 of these schools, it would make more sense economically to tear them down and start over.
Couillard did not advance any specific figures in his speech but he dwelt at length on education.
Setting the mood, he opened by quoting former South Africa president Nelson Mandela, who once said “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.”
Couillard argued that sacrifices Quebecers made over two years have been worthwhile and are going to pay in the form of more flexibility to spend now.
There will be a very strong, financially detailed number on the level of investment in education. PREMIER PHILIPPE COUILLARD
“We are going to support education even better and make it a national priority,” Couillard told the crowd as union workers protested on the street outside.
“This priority will be visible and strongly expressed in the budget we will table. Here is our big project for a better society.”
The financial boost in the budget will be felt at all levels: elementary, high school, CEGEP and university, he added.
“Our el ementary and hi gh schools will get particular attention,” he said. \
“We will continue to renovate dilapidated buildings. You all know there is more work to do.