In Quebec cities, schools are now in open competition. Public and private institutions vie with each other to attract the most economically and academically advantaged students, leaving the regular public school classroom in a precarious state.
Research now shows that the deterioration of teaching and learning conditions in the "regular" system, combined with academic selection processes, contributes to a host of social problems, such as academic failure, unequal access to higher education, overdiagnosis and overtreatment of ADHD, poor mental health among students and teachers, as well as stigma and violence in schools.
Although all children suffer directly or indirectly from the negative effects of school segregation, it is boys, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds, who are the first victims.
The disparities in academic achievement between boys and girls are well-documented and are frequently the subject of articles and open letters in the media. Last fall, Marwah Rizqy produced a widely discussed documentary on the topic entitled L’écart silencieux. She highlighted, among other things, the vast achievement gap between boys and girls in Quebec compared to Ontario and suggested that different strategies for developing reading skills might be a contributing factor.
The various participants in the documentary also addressed sex differences in the pace of neurocognitive development, but remained silent on a major difference between the Quebec and Ontario school systems: the "three-tiered" school system. Due to competition between schools, the Quebec school system is indeed the most segregated in Canada. This means that in Quebec, privileged and disadvantaged students have the least interaction at school and do not receive the same quality of education.
The white paper entitled Ceux qu’on échappe : l’impact de l’école à trois vitesses sur la réussite des garçons, published this week by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, offers essential additional analysis for understanding this phenomenon. In this important work, which he himself describes as “the last major project of his political career,” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois draws on scientific research and shows that the achievement gap between boys and girls, a phenomenon observable worldwide, is significantly exacerbated in Quebec:
“The available research and statistics tell the same story. The high level of school segregation in the Quebec education system is more detrimental to boys, both directly and indirectly. Indirectly, because single-sex education always harms weaker students more than stronger ones, and there are more weak-achieving boys than weak-achieving girls.” Directly, because boys are more sensitive than girls to the composition of their class. Their success is therefore more affected by the difficult learning conditions of regular classes in the public school system.
Gradual fragmentation
On April 2nd, during his final address to the National Assembly, the outgoing premier stated that education had always been his priority. He spoke with emotion about his humble origins and the crucial role school played in his personal journey. François Legault is indeed among those who greatly benefited from the democratization of education led by reformers in the 1960s. Thanks to school, many children of French-Canadian origin, like himself, experienced upward social mobility. However, successive governments over the past few decades have allowed the education system to fragment into a three-tiered system that has gradually distanced us from the principle of equal opportunity we inherited from the Quiet Revolution. In other words, today's "little François Legaults" no longer have the same chances of success.
The Quebec school system, once a symbol of pride and a true engine of the economic and cultural development of the Quebec nation, has gradually transformed into a system of social segregation that today hinders the development of the full potential of all children in Quebec.
Sociologist Guy Rocher, who witnessed the deterioration of the education system he helped create alongside colleagues like Paul Gérin-Lajoie and Jeanne Lapointe, did not hesitate, at the very end of his life, to call this state of affairs a true national betrayal.
Last summer, a petition sponsored by Pascal Bérubé, Member of the National Assembly for Matane-Matapédia, garnered over 160,000 signatures. It denounced the budget cuts imposed on school service centres and acknowledged that such cuts had tangible impacts on the well-being of the most vulnerable children, typically those in the regular public school system.
On the eve of the elections scheduled for this fall, we urge the parties that seriously aspire to govern Quebec to recognize this issue and to take a clear stand against school segregation. Our future depends on it.
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