In a few days, nearly a million young people will return to school benches across Quebec. Of these, more than 82,000 kindergarten students, about 4,000 more than for the 2010-2011 school year. The arrival of the little ones from the " mini baby boom » se poursuit.
The increase in the number of young students that began last year should continue until 2014-2015 when the Ministry of Education plans to welcome more than 91,000 children!
Obviously, all these little ones will then swell the ranks of elementary school children. After a low of 429,000 children last year, attendance should increase slightly this year with nearly 3,000 more students (in the public network). According to Ministry of Education forecasts, their number should gradually increase thereafter to exceed 517,000 in 2019-2020.
Finally, on the secondary side, the decline in enrollment continues. This year, 332,930 young people will attend public high schools across the province, up from 391,000 five years earlier. As for private schools, attendance remains stable at around 88,000 students.
“The number of secondary school students was at its maximum in September 2006. In 2009, it is engaged in a process of decline which could cause it to lose another 15 % by September 2015. In the very long term, we will observe a rise driven by expected growth in elementary school, ”says the ministry. Thus, just over 305,000 adolescents are expected to attend Quebec public schools in 2015. “At the end of the 1980s, the number of births increased significantly. It is the children born during this period who constitute the relatively large number of enrollments at the end of secondary school in 2009. The drop in births observed after 1990 led to the drop in enrollment in primary education and is now leading to that of the number of children. 'effective in secondary', analyzes the ministry.
Overall, Quebec school boards will experience an increase of approximately 12 % in their enrollment between 2009 and 2024, or an increase of nearly 106,000 students.
