Mandarins of education

A teacher is sitting at his desk and he is hot. Make no mistake, the heatwave is not crushing us. Outside we can feel a mild autumn temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. This is because the school service center (CSS) has decided to start the heating. It is definitely 24 degrees Celsius in his classroom, without being able to lower the thermostat. He explains strangely that it is good for the plants on the window. Although, once he gets there, he has to open them to cool the room a bit. This is probably one of the reasons why we don’t have electricity as often in Quebec lately. We are told to put the washing machine on at night while schools heat the classrooms with the windows wide open.

He would like to leave the door of his room open to let a small draft in, but that is impossible. A student in the next class is always shouting and this attracts the attention of his students. Other times, it is another student in the same class who becomes disorganized by dealing with the first one’s cries. It is said that they cannot keep the heat very well either (I assure you, this is sarcasm).

Should these young people be in special classes? No doubt. But the direction of this CSS is inclusion at all costs.

The teacher of these two students is a new teacher in professional integration. He needs help, and mutual support is essential in our school. The teacher 2^e year which is right next door there is a classroom assistant every morning for two hours. She has a good group and, although she appreciates the help, she doesn’t really need it. So she offers her partner to her colleague who is struggling with such a difficult group.

The answer is CSS is generic: no.

Class help is for 1^again and 2^e years, and it seems that we cannot use this facility in class 3^e who really needs it, even if everything is going well with the little ones. On the other hand, at nearby CSS, there is help for class 4^e year.

Why are the directions different, when these two CSSs are only separated by a boulevard? Are they so different?

But who makes these decisions?

I am thinking of this article by Paul Arcand in The Press entitled “The Mandarins”, on the mistakes of our health system. I noticed several things that were similar to education. As here, the bureaucratic machine and senior officials, renamed “the mandarins” by Mr. Arcand, do as they see fit.

We hear Minister Bernard Drainville everywhere saying that we need to change the narrative in education. I agree with him.

Protect children

At the same time, CSS closes classes with certain routes under the pretext that the eligibility criteria need to be tightened. A mandarin from this great CSS went so far as to say that “a high school student who has 40% in mathematics and 60% in French is considered successful”.

Wait, I’ll read it again to make sure I understand correctly. I had read correctly. I thought I had dry eyes from the heat, but I didn’t. A student receiving such results is in great difficulty. Only people far from class think otherwise.

I ask the question again: who makes these decisions? In whose name and for what? These people have air conditioning in their offices; it is not the heat that is in the minds of the cloud. Unfortunately, here and so often, it is clear that the student is not at the center of their concerns and decisions.

I repeat, at the risk of being redundant: my duty of loyalty is to my students and not to these mandarins.

I am thinking of this student who was the victim of a sexual assault and whose story had to go to the minister’s office so that she could change schools. There is also a Pointe-Saint-Charles school with boarded up windows plywoodwhich prevents the little air and natural light from entering the classrooms. Maybe we were trying to prepare a haunted house before Halloween?

I also think about theBedford School, which has a terrible history. I didn’t choose this word because Halloween is coming, but because what happened there was terrible. It’s hard to believe that upper management didn’t know. Surely someone is responsible for this chaos.

This information should not have to be pushed by whistleblowers to be heard by senior management. Why do they have to go to the media to make things happen? The CSS must take their responsibilities and report more quickly. Above all, they have to do their job, which is first and foremost to protect children.

Let’s revive education as requested by Mr. Drainville. On the other hand, let’s make sure that those CSSs, which are anything but a service, get the message. By leading staff and students as pledges, we all put ourselves in checkmate.

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