Minister Roberge unveils his Recovery Plan for Educational Success 2021-2022

Following the Rendezvous for Educational Success held at the end of April, Quebec's Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, unveiled a Recovery Plan for Educational Success. This aims to quickly put in place measures to reduce learning gaps, while laying the foundations for the functioning of the next school year.

Our Recovery plan for educational success will be implemented from the summer of 2021. According to the Minister, it was built around three guiding principles: predictability (to help the environments to prepare now for the future), flexibility (to give the environments the latitude necessary to meet their needs) and equal opportunities (to promote the success of the greatest number).

At a press conference, Minister Roberge acknowledged that the current school year had been a real obstacle course. He also mentioned that gaps had widened between the students, in particular according to their places of residence. “In some regions, there has been almost no distance education, apart from the period after the holiday break. Teaching continued normally. In other regions, distance education has been a reality for much of the year. Just think of the young people in the Quebec City region who have been learning at home for over a month. It is certain that it is not equal for all the pupils. "

Towards a return to normal?

With his Plan, he said he wanted to give schools the tools to allow them to consider a gradual return to normalcy. Without wishing to qualify it as such, the year 2021-2022 could practically be considered as a transitional year.

Thus, the Minister confirmed that the next year, like the current year, will be divided into two stages. However, the following weighting will be in effect for next year: 40 % for the first stage (from August 2021 to January 2022) and 60 % for the second (from February 2022 to June 2022). Communications to parents should be made halfway through each stage to keep them informed of their child's progress. 

In addition, the mandatory ministerial exams, which have been canceled for 2021, will be back in June 2022 with an adjusted weighting of 10 % instead of 20 % and a weighting of 20 % instead of 50 % for the unique 4th year exams. and Secondary V. 

10 priorities

More precisely, the Recovery plan for educational success is structured around three axes and contains ten objectives with a budget of $ 110 million.

Success and Gap Reduction

In order to promote educational success and reduce learning gaps, the ministry intends to pursue measures of mutual educational assistance and pedagogical support, offer support and guidance during the summer period and strengthen the school-family bond. in some circles. 

Thus, the tutoring already started will continue, with specific sums for students enrolled in adult education and vocational training centers, as well as native students. Summer educational activities will be put in place to mitigate “the summer slippage”, with specific amounts for immigrant and allophone students. The hiring of support agents dedicated to strengthening the link between school and family is also planned in disadvantaged areas.

The Minister is also deploying a specific measure to “maximize the digital skills of students, staff and parents”. This measure, estimated at 15M$, provides for a range of actions to maintain and promote digital development in general education for young people, general education for adults and vocational training: 

• training and support for school personnel; 

• tools and activities for the development of digital skills; 

• national platform for digital educational resources; 

• acquisition of digital educational resources; 

• support for parents; 

• audiovisual solutions and pilot projects to promote alternative teaching methods.

Well-being and mental health

In order to promote the well-being and mental health of students and staff, schools will receive sums that must be dedicated to the development of prevention activities or projects. 

In addition, since recent consultations clearly highlighted the importance of maintaining extracurricular activities for students, of encouraging regular physical activity and learning outdoors, investments are planned in this regard. Moreover, in order to increase the opportunities for going out, moving and enjoying the outdoors, educational outings in nature and discovery classes for each elementary school student will be planned in particular. The establishment of a research chair on teaching and learning outside in a school context was also announced.

School organization and pedagogical supervision

With regard to school organization, in addition to the elements mentioned above on the stages and their weighting, the Minister will publish, once again next year, documents presenting the knowledge to be prioritized at the primary and secondary levels; “Essential knowledge”. Measures to facilitate the transition of students between levels of education (elementary-secondary, secondary-college, etc.) are also included in the Plan.

Finally, the Minister announced the establishment of a pilot project aimed at creating positions for primary school teachers. These will have the role of supporting teachers in the performance of their teaching task or other non-teaching tasks (assistance to a student, personal care, behavior management under the supervision of the teacher or the teacher). teacher, etc.). The pilot project will be detailed in another strategy to be published in the fall of 2021. This recommendation had been made by certain groups during the Rendezvous for Educational Success.

Professional autonomy

To those who would have liked more precision concerning the teaching and assessment practices to be adopted in the current context, Minister Roberge recalled, during the question period following his press briefing, that he recognizes the professional autonomy of teachers and that he had complete confidence in their professional judgment with regard to student practice and assessment.

In addition: 

• Official press release from the Ministry of Education and other press releases in response

• Feedback on the Rendezvous for Educational Success : The École branchée had recently presented some elements of the briefs made public by certain groups participating in the Rendez-vous for educational success.