AREAS OF INTERVENTION

AREA I: EVERYONE ACHIEVING THEIR FULL POTENTIAL

Everyone achieving their full potential is at the heart of the mission of schools and educational childcare centres. Child development has a significant impact on preparation for school, adaptation to the school environment and educational success.

This first broad area of intervention of the Policy on Educational Success involves three challenges respecting services and interventions aimed at children, youth and adult learners.

Challenge 1 – Early, rapid and ongoing intervention

The need for early and ongoing intervention to prepare for and facilitate transitions from one level of education to the next was probably the most spontaneous and decisive consensus to have come out of the public consultations in the fall of 2016. Preparing children for school is considered one of the most important steps in the continuum of educational services. Also, rapid intervention with all children and students, regardless of their age, throughout their educational path was unanimously recognized as a preferred prevention strategy.

Difficulties and special needs can arise at any age and dangerously increase the risk of early school leaving, especially among boys, who are already more likely to drop out of school.

Parents, school principals, teachers, educators, community organizations, researchers and various local, regional and provincial organizations were clear about the importance of preventive approaches and practices. A preventive approach makes it possible to identify and understand a person’s permanent and temporary limitations and difficulties, as well as his or her talents and potential.

  • Orientation 1.1 Act early and rapidly
  • Orientation 1.2 Act continuously and in a concerted manner

Implementation

In order to foster early, rapid and ongoing intervention among all children and students, the government will take the following steps:

  • review the funding model for students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties
  • add specialized resources to improve the integrated services offer and provide special needs students in vocational training centres and adult education centres with more guidance
  • publish a collaborative interministerial strategy, developed by the Ministère de la Famille, the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur and the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, on education for children between the ages of 0 and 8; this strategy is intended to foster the continuity, quality and accessibility of early childhood education up to the end of Elementary Cycle One and to ensure that students acquire the basic literacy and numeracy skills
  • continue the implementation of full-time kindergarten for 4-year-olds to complement educational childcare centre services
  • study the merits of extending the age of compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18, or until the student has obtained a first diploma or qualification, by offering educational paths that meet their needs, particularly in training for qualifications

Challenge 2 – Foundations and paths for lifelong learning

The term foundations encompasses a wide range of knowledge, skills and attitudes. These foundations enable a person to learn throughout his or her lifetime and to benefit from greater freedom and autonomy in making personal, work-related and other choices.

The school system must also provide a variety of fluid and flexible educational paths that meet the needs of both girls and boys, young people and adults, whether they are in general education or vocational training. These paths make it possible to welcome and support both students transitioning from another educational path and people with atypical or unconventional educational paths.

  • Orientation 2.1 Develop literacy and numeracy skills starting in early childhood and continuing throughout life
  • Orientation 2.2 Integrate 21st-century competencies and digital technologies more effectively
  • Orientation 2.3 Develop diversified paths for vocational training based on Québec’s development priorities and students’ interests

Implementation

  • In order to lay the foundations for lifelong learning and create pathways conducive to engaging in it, the government will:
  • launch a vocational training action plan
  • launch an action plan concerning digital technologies in education, higher education and competency development
  • support entrepreneurship projects at school
  • work toward the modernization of pedagogical frameworks and procedures for the evaluation of learning
  • focus on the development, enhancement and maintenance of literacy skills throughout life, in particular by:
    • implementing a strategy to improve language skills
    • implementing a literacy and francization strategy

Challenge 3 – Adapting to diversity and different needs and educational paths

Educational childcare centres and schools cater to a wide variety of individuals with different needs and offer different educational paths toward educational success. Each child and student is unique, and their differences must be seen as opportunities for success rather than as obstacles.

Educational success is commensurate with a person’s potential and aspirations. Thus, academic requirements and educational objectives can vary depending on the person and his or her needs and pace of learning. For instance, if certain children and students with special needs are to develop and achieve their full potential, individualized planning will be required. Recognizing diversity also means adjusting the nature and level of expectations.

Never before has interaction between stakeholders and partners in education, particularly those in the health and social services sector, required such vision, coherence and effectiveness.

  • Orientation 3.1 Recognize diversity and value everyone’s contribution
  • Orientation 3.2 Provide accessible, quality educational services adapted to diverse needs
  • Orientation 3.3 Take action at all levels of governance to ensure equal opportunity

Implementation

To adapt services to the diversity of student profiles, needs and educational paths, the government will:

  • add one specialized resource in each elementary school in Québec to act as a liaison between students, their families and other significant practitioners
  • establish a minimum level of specialized and integrated services in schools and centres to allow them to respond equally to the needs of all students
  • implement measures, in collaboration with private schools, to facilitate the integration of students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties
  • create an issues table on education in Montréal in order to adapt the measures, action plans and strategies associated with this policy to the reality of Montrealers
  • create a provincial issues table on the educational success of youth and adult Indigenous students in order to find possible solutions to meet their needs. This initiative will be integrated in the Plan d’action gouvernemental pour le développement social et culturel des Premières Nations et des Inuits
  • in collaboration with the members of the National Assembly, table a bill on school attendance before the National Assembly fostering equal opportunity and providing a framework for home schooling and free schooling for students with precarious immigration status, and bestowing more powers on institutions offering young people educational services outside the current frameworks
  • improve the continuum of services for allophone student and the support provided to vulnerable students of immigrant origin
  • publish a broad plan of action to diversify and adapt educational services and offer the necessary guidance so that all students, regardless of their needs or social background, can achieve their full potential
AREAS
Area II