Seismic changes to Quebec education

School board elections not banned; history revision to be revised

Québec Minister of Education Sébastien Proulx has announced that he would be postponing the new Quebec high school history curriculum and scrapping Bill 86 all together.

The new high school curriculum was formulated by the previous Parti Québecois government and has been run as a pilot project in some Quebec high schools. The curriculum was criticized by some educators for ignoring the contributions of Anglophones and First Nations peoples to the history of Quebec.

“In the Quebec school system, which I have experienced as a student, there were always at least two versions, if not more, of the results of events and of the events themselves,” said James Shea, Chairman of the West Quebec School Board, to the Bulletin in March. “I am  concerned about revisionist history that wants to put a different interpretation on facts to support current political perspectives.”

Shea emphasized that these were his personal reflections on the proposed curriculum.

Now that the implementation of the curriculum will be postponed, Shea has expressed the hope to be a part of an ad hoc committee which will propose changes.  “We should be consulting with experts on the curriculum,” Shea said. “We will give our input on the contributions of Anglophones to Quebec history. There is a clear need for us to work together.”

The curriculum is split into two parts, one for year three students and one for year four.

“The minister's objective is to await results of the secondary pilot project in year four before making it compulsory for the two levels,” said Bryan St-Louis, a Media Relations Officer with the Ministry of Education, in a statement to the Bulletin. “Several consultations were held and improvements are constantly made. The goal is that the new program is as representative and inclusive as possible.”

In a joint conference between the Quebec English School Boards Association and the Association of Administrators of English Schools of Quebec held on Friday, the Minister addressed the curriculum issue and also made the announcement that Bill 86 would be scrapped entirely.

Bill 86 was proposed by the Liberal government and would have immediately abolished elected school boards in Quebec. Elected school boards would have only been reinstated if parents in those school districts voted in favour of their reinstatement.

James Shea, as the President of the Regional Association of West Quebecers, had made a presentation to a government committee on Bill 86 explaining his organization’s opposition to it on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. The Canadian Constitution guarantees regional minorities the right to elect their own school boards.

Shea said that the Minister was greeted with a standing ovation, a very different welcome from the one he received at the last conference.

“The Minister said that, over the last four months, he has heard from everyone on Bill 86 and has taken that input into account,” said Shea. “Parents and the community are important stakeholders in schools.”

Instead of Bill 86, the Minister said that, as a part of its new approach to education, the government would instead be proposing to have more kindergarten classes, starting at four years old and making school mandatory until 18 years old.