MONTREAL - CEGEP students will be required to take a mandatory course in Quebec history, possibly as soon as next year if the Parti Quebecois gets its way.
The minority PQ government announced Monday that it is launching a committee to find ways of increasing the teaching of Quebec history to students from elementary through to CEGEP.
The ministers responsible for education, Marie Malavoy and Pierre Duchesne will lead the committee, which will also include PQ MNA Jacques Beauchemin and UQAM History professor Nadia Fahmy-Eid.
Malavoy said at a press conference Monday that the committee will attempt to address what she said is a general dissatisfaction with the teaching of the province’s history.
“If they want to be Quebecers, they have to know where Quebec comes from and how we built Quebec and what are the debates we have in Quebec, so I think they are very much concerned by the history of Quebec,” said Malavoy.
Suggestions from the public will solicited through a special website.
The committee’s report should be tabled by the end of this year and pilot projects implemented in some schools as of September 14, according to Malavoy.
Premier Pauline Marois recently proposed the idea of a compulsory CEGEP Quebec History course to a party youth gathering on August 25.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
