A new CAQ bill offering free pre-kindergarten classes for all four-year-olds across the province is already facing heavy criticism.
Following through on one of the CAQ’s main election promises, Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge tabled the bill Thursday.
Premier Francois Legault has personally championed the idea, saying he was willing to risk his seat for it.
Legault has argued that having children in classrooms at a younger age can help detect learning disabilities earlier and in turn, they can get the support they need sooner.
“For me, it makes sense that if we bring children in schools earlier - especially the ones having learning difficulties - it will help them,” he said.
Legault said education is one of the reasons he entered politics.
“School starts at four in Toronto, in New York, most of the places in Europe. It gives good results. Our results are not as good as they can be, as they are, for example, in Ontario,” he said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Legault has the support of Egide Royer, a psychologist working in the education department at Laval University who says pre-k for four-year-olds can lead to higher graduation rates.
“We have to intervene early regarding language, behaviour, some kind of handicaps, and mostly regarding early literacy and early numeracy,” said Royer.
Legault said pre-k won't be mandatory for all children, but he wants to give parents another option.
Plan doesn't make sense: opposition
Both the Liberals and the PQ are blasting the idea, saying it doesn’t make sense, and that the CAQ is stubbornly going ahead with a plan that school boards and experts have said is impossible, unnecessary – or both.
“The pattern of not listening to anyone but themselves and also, they have one idea, the decision is made, and they’re going to follow through the idea, no matter what people are going to say. They’re not listening to the parents, the school boards, or the experts,” said Liberal education critic Marwah Rizqy.
The opposition argues Quebec schools don't have the space, or enough teachers to make it work.
“We are very concerned that the basis of all this reorganization of the school system is simply based on an electoral obsession and now an obsession of this government to go forward with this, when it's not something that is wished for, it's not something that is good for the kids,” added PQ education critic Veronique Hivon.
Current system works: CSQ
The CSQ union is also taking a stand against the plan, saying the education minister is making the wrong move by pushing “wall-to-wall” pre-k for four-year-olds, despite “numerous divergent voices.”
They say the current system, with 400 full-time pre-k classes in underprivileged neighbourhoods, is a good one.
The union said the current system works and subsidized childcare centres fill the gap.
School boards on both the French and English side have already said there's not enough room in their schools to accommodate these extra classes, because schools are overloaded and they don't have the staff.
Extending kindergarten to four-year-olds is a cornerstone of the CAQ’s planned education reforms, a topic that’s been a priority for the government.
Election promise
At a leaders’ debate during the election campaign, the moderator asked what promise Legault would be willing to resign for if he failed to deliver it and pre-k for four-year-olds was his answer.
Legault said Thursday he’s simply doing what he thinks is right.
“I promise that I will continue to be stubborn for our children,” he said.
The CAQ plans to roll out the classes over the next five years at the cost of $400 million to $700 million each year, once the new system is in place.
