Quebec adopts education reform bill, adding powers to education minister
Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville's school governance reform will see the light of day, despite opposition parties, unions, and school directors' criticisms.
Bill 23 was adopted Thursday by the National Assembly, with 76 votes in favour and all three opposition parties voting against it.
Tabled in May, Bill 23 grants new powers to the Education Minister, including the ability to appoint the directors general of French-language school service centres, to overturn their decisions or to dismiss them.
The study of the bill was completed last week, making the bill's adoption a formality in the context of negotiations with the public sector for a new collective agreement.
It was amended to exempt English school boards from implementing government directives the boards considered unconstitutional.
The adoption of the bill enables the minister to regulate the continuing training of teachers, which unions, who consider it a frontal attack on the autonomy of teachers.
In a news release, the Centrale de syndicats du Québec (CSQ) accused the Legault government of taking advantage of a "crisis context to pass a reform that no one wants."
As union members — teachers, academic support staff and other public school professionals — get ready to continue strike action, "there is unfortunately nothing in this reform to concretely improve their working conditions," CSQ president Éric Gingras said in a statement.
Drainville said Bill 23 aims to improve access to data in the network, and ensure that students' academic records will follow them throughout their academic careers, even if they change school service centres.
The bill's adoption lays the foundations for the creation of the Institut national d'excellence en éducation, whose mandate will be to guide the school network toward educational practices supported by evidence, Drainville added.
The Conseil supérieur de l'éducation would focus only on higher education.
Unions suggested during consultations last June that the institute would not be truly independent because the government would appoint members.
They had accused Drainville of wanting to appropriate all the powers and had demanded he abandon his reform to concentrate on problems in the classrooms.
