Excessive centralization of powers? Bernard Drainville’s reform worries

Bill 23, which aims to reform governance in Quebec’s education system, was adopted last Thursday, granting new powers to the Minister of Education.

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Bernard Drainville will now have the power to appoint the directors general of school service centers in the province, as well as to overturn decisions with which he disagrees.

Many people are worried by these new powers that the minister has granted himself.

“We will perhaps find ourselves in a system that we have already experienced, with educational dogmas. We’re going to tell teachers, “here’s the recipe, use it and everything’s fine,” says Brigitte Bilodeau, vice-president of educational and professional files for the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ). .

The bill aims to reform governance in the province’s education system.

The government therefore intends:

-Improve access to data in the network: students’ school records will possibly be available online, avoiding the need to transfer them from one school to another.

-Create the National Institute of Excellence in Education.

-Transform the Higher Education Council. The latter’s mission will now be restricted to the college and university level.

-Impose continuing training on teachers.

This last point particularly worries some parents and teachers.

“We will perhaps find ourselves in a system that we have already experienced, with educational dogmas. We’re going to tell teachers, ‘here’s the recipe, use it and everything’s fine,'” says Brigitte Bilodeau, vice-president of educational and professional files for the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ). .

According to professor at Laval University Simon Viviers, the minister’s reform will have consequences.

“This bill centralizes powers – some would say excessively. We are roughly removing almost all the safeguards that would prevent the minister from making bad decisions,” he analyzes in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.

“We are eliminating diversity in almost the entire ecosystem of the education system,” he adds.

The Minister of Education, for his part, defended the merits of his reform.

“Thanks to this new law, we are improving the efficiency of the network. I am convinced that better coherence between government direction and the field, improved access to data and the creation of the National Institute of Excellence in Education will be beneficial for the success of our young people,” he said. mentioned in a press release.