(Quebec) “Better telling the truth than saying it prattle According to this logic, the Minister of Education announced on Tuesday that he is postponing the 2029-2030 term – that is, for a putative third mandate for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in government, if he wins the next election – down to the target of 2,600 open kindergarten classes. 4 years all over Quebec.
Mr. Drenville’s announcement came during an interview he gave to TVA Network. Minister CAQ justified this postponement using the same arguments that prompted his predecessor to slow the pace, last term: scarcity of manpower among faculty and scarcity of space in schools to open these classes.
We are at 1600 [classes de maternelles 4 ans au Québec]. The target is 2,600. About 1,000 are missing instead of saying we’re going to create 1,000 [classes] By 2025, we know it would be irresponsible to say so. Therefore, we will publish it over time, ”he justified.
Photo by Robert Skinner, Press Archives
Bernard Darinville
Creating a kindergarten for 4-year-olds is a leading promise of CAQ. In 2018, during the election campaign that led François Legault to become prime minister for the first time, he put his seat on the line by promising to make good on his promise to offer a 4-year-old kindergarten to all children in Quebec.
This promise, however, originated during the first term. It went from 5,000 open classes by 2023-2024 to 2,600 classes by 2025-2026. With its latest update on Tuesday, CAQ is once again reviewing that goal and now promising to achieve it after four years.
“Do you hear the whistle of the truck that is backing up?”
Barely announced, this new setback by the Legault government in achieving its goal of establishing 4-year-old kindergarten classes has the opposition jumping.
“It’s written in the sky,” Quebec’s Liberal Party education critic Marwa Rezky said.
In the last term, she lamented, “participants laughed out loud when told there was a shortage of teachers and buildings.”
PQ MP Pascal Berube said he did not understand François Legault’s “obsession with the 4-year-old’s kindergartner”.
I remember the general astonishment of the political class when he emphasized in the debate [des chefs de 2018] He’s ready to put his seat on the line for a 4-year-old’s kindergartner. What’s new in his seat? ‘ he asked sarcastically.
For her part, Ruba Ghazal of Quebec Solidere asked if Quebecers hear the “booster truck whistle” like her.
“After the refusal of the Director of the School Service Center who closed the 4-year-old kindergarten classes due to lack of staff, the Minister of Education is now making the same decision. It took more than four years for the CAQ to realize that the 4-year-old kindergarten is not really A priority for our network. If Bernard Drenville really wants to avoid the bullshit of Quebecers, he needs to ditch his 4-year-old kindergartner forever.”
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