Quebec’s public schools can stay open during March break to make up for lost class time — but it won’t be mandatory, the province’s education minister said Tuesday.
Bernard Drainville announced a $300-million plan to help students catch up after the labour conflict kept some children at home since late November.
As part of the measures, Drainville said school administrators can choose to keep schools open during March break but the government will let each school decide what is needed.
“We will not force anyone to do more work if they don’t want to,” Drainville said of teachers and other school staff.
Under the plan, the province will also push back upcoming report cards to the end of March to give students more time to catch up.
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Ministerial exams scheduled for the end of the school year will also be rescheduled to give students more time to learn, but the exams still must be done by June 23. The exams will also be adjusted to count for less of the student’s final grade than unusual.
Other measures include providing additional tutoring outside of class time and offering free summer school for Grade 10 and 11 students who fail their ministerial exams.
“We need to do everything we can to help the students catch up and overcome the delays,” Drainville said.
The move comes after the provincial government reached tentative deals with major public sector unions just days before the new year, though they still have to be ratified by members.
One of those unions — the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement, or FAE — went on an unlimited strike on Nov. 23. The walkout shuttered some 800 schools for 22 days and kept about 368,000 students home.
Other schools were shuttered for 11 days sprinkled over several weeks as teachers represented by a different negotiating bloc held strike days of varying lengths.
Meanwhile, students in the private schools didn’t miss any class time.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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