Bernard Drainville took the reins of the Ministry of Education, saying he would focus on measures that will produce results. But you still need to know that in recent years both Minister Roberge and the approximately 1,000 officials of this public body have gone to great lengths to prevent their performance from being assessed.
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Think of the famous school ventilation saga in which the protocol for measuring CO2 in the classroom was designed without any scientific consideration in order to guarantee reassuring results. There is also the promise of a four-year daycare, the number of which has never reached what was expected and whose costs have exploded to such an extent that the department has stopped counting them.
The weakness of the MEQ strategic plan
This culture of inefficiency is coupled with the avoidance of the responsibility mentality. The most striking example is the MEQ Strategic Plan. In 2018 the magazine News revealed that the latter achieved one of the worst results in the government, giving it a vote of 21%. Therefore, this department does not keep statistics on important elements such as the number of teachers who leave the profession without full retirement. In fact, when it comes to personnel management, if MEQ officials worked for a private company, they would have been fired a long time ago.
Likewise, we refuse to accumulate data on the number of students who graduate from high school in five years. We prefer to embellish everything by talking about obtaining various diplomas or certificates over a period of seven years.
Management by results does not therefore seem to apply to our senior decision makers in education and, according to many experts, this strategic plan does not constitute a solid basis on which to carry out effective public accountability.
What to do with this strategic plan?
The MEQ’s current strategic plan will end in 2023. It seems obvious that Minister Drainville will need to use expertise outside his senior officials to develop a new one. He should bring together stakeholders from the school community, but also experts in the administrative management of public bodies. The objectives of the plan will have to be the subject of a broad debate and not of consultations behind closed doors as recommended by Minister Roberge if the necessary consensus is to be generated for its realization.
If education is the CAQ government’s priority, this will must translate into a clear, precise and effective strategic plan. Otherwise, if we are satisfied with managing the MEQ in such a way as to be politically well, as too often happens, the school network will continue to vanish and those who work there will try more and more – rightly – to leave it.
Luca Papineau, teacher, The Assumption
