Education Reform Update of November 28, 1997

The Organization of Teaching

All students will receive a basic common-core education from kindergarten to the end of Secondary III, and will have the opportunity to diversify their courses in the last two years of secondary school.

Elementary school must allow students to learn work methods and introduce them to the main characteristics and values of society.

The elementary level will be broken down into three two-year cycles. Students will learn new things in the first year of each cycle and consolidate what they have learned in the second year. This new breakdown should make it possible to form small teams of teachers who will follow or teach the same students for a full cycle. Greater emphasis will be placed on the language of instruction and mathematics. French as a second language will continue to be taught as of Grade 1.

History will be taught as of Grade 3 and will include citizenship education. Arts education will continue to be compulsory as of Grade 1.

The programs of study will be updated in order to clearly identify essential content and enrichment content.

The first cycle or first three years of secondary school will consist of a common core of learning. A number of changes are planned.

More time will be devoted to the teaching of French as the language of instruction. The number of credits allotted for French as a second language will increase from four to six, as will those allotted for mathematics in Secondary III.

History, which will include citizenship education, will be taught at each grade level of the first cycle, as will science, which will incorporate technology- related content. A third language will be introduced in Secondary III, and the number of credits allotted for optional subjects will increase from four to six.

The second cycle or last two years of secondary school will allow for some diversification. Greater emphasis will be placed on optional subjects.

The number of credits allotted for optional subjects will increase from 16 to 24. However, students will have to choose their optional courses in no more than two fields of study. Two levels of difficulty will be offered in French and English as the language of instruction and as a second language. Important changes will be made to the Secondary IV mathematics program: the number of credits it carries will be reduced from six to four, and an intermediate-level program will be introduced in Secondary IV and V. A new course entitled Understanding the Contemporary World will replace the Secondary V economics course.

Appropriate Tools

For the reform to be a success, it will be necessary to provide appropriate tools to those responsible for its implementation. Special attention will be paid to teacher training, the policy for student evaluation will be updated, and changes will be made to the system for approving teaching materials.

Because teachers are the front-line players in the reform, special attention will be paid to their training.

The MEQ will soon be announcing new directions for teacher training. An advisory committee is already working on the recommendations it will submit to the Minister with respect to initial teacher training and professional development. Initial teacher training programs will be updated along the same lines as a few years ago.

The schools’ governing boards will see to it that practising teachers can upgrade their skills in order to prepare to teach the new subjects. They will also be responsible for professional development activities. Training in cross-curricular learning will be offered as well.

Changes to student evaluation practices will focus on five key areas.

An assessment will be administered at the end of each cycle in order to find ways of preventing academic delays which too often result in students repeating a grade. An evaluation will be introduced at the end of the first cycle of secondary school in order to verify whether students have mastered the basic subjects before they start taking optional subjects. More appropriate evaluation instruments must be used. There will be a move away from objective examinations, especially those administered by the MEQ, which have raised much criticism. Better balance must be sought between this type of examination and other types which allow students to express their ideas. The quality of student writing will be evaluated in all examinations in all subjects. Finally, schools will issue at least four easy-to-understand report cards over the school year in order to encourage parent involvement, a key contributing factor to student success.

The secondary school diploma will be awarded on the basis of new rules.

In Secondary IV and V, students will be required to accumulate at least 60 credits out of a possible total of 72. They will be required to pass language of instruction, second language and mathematics courses in Secondary V , as well as science and technology, and history and citizenship education courses in Secondary IV. Furthermore, the MEQ will supervise the administration of uniform examinations in the Secondary IV and V basic subjects.

The system for approving teaching materials, which still uses the same criteria as when it was first put in place some twenty years ago, will be reviewed.

Adjustments will be made to give teachers greater autonomy and to take advantage of the possibilities offered by new information and communications technologies. The definition of “basic materials” will be reviewed. So will the criteria used to evaluate textbooks and the status of standard reference works such as grammars and dictionaries. An advisory committee will be asked to make recommendations to the Minister on these matters.

The next issue will look at:

• Student admission and enrolment in the new linguistic school boards
• Kindergarten for five-year-olds: what lies ahead