School catch-up | Ruba Ghazal and parents demand free summer school at all times

(Quebec) Quebec solidaire (QS) MP Ruba Ghazal and parent committee groups are asking Minister Bernard Drainville to take one more step so that all summer courses are offered free of charge to students in difficulty in the future .

As part of his academic catch-up plan announced last winter at the end of a historic strike in the school network, the Minister of Education announced an investment of 36.6 million to ensure that education courses are offered. summer in the subjects covered by a ministerial examination in secondary 4 and 5 is free in 2024.

In an interview, Ms. Ghazal recalls that summer courses for students who have failed a ministerial exam can cost up to $700 in certain cases, in the context where the costs associated with remedial courses during the summer break vary from one region to another, as well as from one school service center to another.

“There is some housekeeping to be done in the [management of] summer courses. There are too many disparities between school service centers and this poses a problem of equity between students, depending on where they live. I propose to stop all this and make them free for all students,” she says.

According to Ms. Ghazal’s team, perpetuating free summer courses and extending it to all remedial courses would cost “substantially” less than the 36 million planned this year, as the school year ends was marked by a strike – some students missed up to 24 days of school.

For Sylvain Martel, spokesperson for the Regroupement des committees de parents nationaux du Québec, the situation that normally prevails, where courses are free in certain regions, but chargeable elsewhere, is untenable.

According to him, summer courses are not “a luxury” for the students who take them nor a “day camp”. They should be provided free of charge by the State.

The president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec, Mélanie Laviolette, agrees. The free admission planned for this summer for 4th and 5th secondary students should not be an exception, she said.

“What we want is for our children to succeed and for them to have the help they need to do so. Summer school is a continuation of the school curriculum for those who are having difficulty. They are the ones we need to think about and they are the ones who will benefit,” she says.