During his press conference on Friday January 8th, the Minister of Education, Jean-Francois Robberg, indicated, among certain measures, the cancellation of ministerial examinations for this year, the postponement of the delivery of the first school report and that its value in the summary of the balance sheet will be modified. Logical decisions and much appreciated. But all those involved in education expected him to announce the new weighting.
Also read: Roberge game plan
Absolutely! Then it was vaguely understood that he would return to the topic one day. This silence is extremely horrific. I heard, weeks ago, voices in the education network, university researchers, and school administrators as teachers, for the minister to change the value of the first bulletin and judge it. Too high at 50% of the final mark. Usually the first step is the least important step in a newsletter.
- Listen to the interview with Luke Papino, the teacher, on QUB Radio:
The value of each step matters
It is inconceivable that the minister has not yet truly responded to this request at the end of the semester. If we want a young person to commit to his success, there is a principle known to all that he must be informed of the value of every evaluation or examination he undergoes. We even find this rule in the learning assessment policy, which the Minister cannot ignore.
Indeed, it took Mr. Robberg a long time to react to the educational outcomes for young people. An important principle of the Quebec Training Program is that the teacher should not wait until the student fails in order to help him achieve better success. Early intervention is indeed very effective.
Since November, Mr. Roberge has been told on the network that additional educational resources are needed if we are to avoid a disaster. His response came only last week. In addition to the delay, it is so weak and incomplete that one wonders whether the announced measures will save the current school year.
We hope for our students
Now it’s up to the Minister to act and give some hope to our students who know they have already failed their first report card with the current weighting. Otherwise, his inaction will create a large number of dropouts. If they are late, the game is not over yet. They should learn from it as quickly as possible, not in a month or two, but from next week, what value each of the two year report cards will be. They need to know that they will have a chance to recover and be able to successfully complete their year if they can actually do so.
Time to say it: Our students are tired of behaving with them like they are a vulgar yoyo. Since September, they have been released non-stop. Our students need kindness, help, hope, and motivation.
Mr. Robberg spoiled the last school year when he spoke of a student “vacation”. Consequently, he could not convince them to work hard and give teachers the tools and means to intervene with their students. For their success, he must never make such a big mistake again. Time to be a true leader and act at the right time. right Now.
