Quebec CEGEP students prepare for exams over holidays, next year

CEGEP teachers and support staff are on strike this week as part of the Common Front of unions. The strike means that final exams have been delayed, with some being postponed to 2024.

Some students aren't happy about it, or that some colleges are opting to hold makeup classes and exams over the holidays.

"Most students work during the holidays," said Federation of CEGEP Student Associations president Laurence Mallette-Leonard. "It's a period where they can accumulate a lot of money so now they will have the choice between working and studying."

Federation of CEGEPs president Bernard Tremblay said there's no other option but to alter the schedules.

"According to the [CEGEP institute rules] we need to have 82-day semesters in the fall and in the winter so for the fall semester we have a bit of a challenge," he said.

The federation of student associations asked Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Dery to suspend the requirement and shorten the fall semester, but the request was denied.

"To mitigate the impact of the strike, institutions will have to respect the equivalent of the prescribed 82-day period, and have all the flexibility they need to reorganize teaching activities to suit their reality," the minister's office said in a statement.

The decision leaves students with more questions than answers.

"A lot of students are wondering, you know, I'm supposed to be graduating this semester. I'm supposed to be starting university in January, but I have exams scheduled, so a lot of students don't know what to do," said Dawson Student Union president Isabelo Beli-En David.

The student union, however, remains behind the Common Front.

Teachers and support staff rallied outside Dery's office on Wednesday, demanding better salaries and more resources.

"We want our students to persevere and succeed," said CEGEP teachers' union vice-president Yves de Repentigny. "We know that, every year, it's more or less 70 per cent of students that receive their diplomas. We want to improve that and we need resources to do that."

"We are there to promote and there to make the workers of tomorrow in the colleges so we need to be included in that negotiation," said CEGEP support workers' union president Valerie Fontaine. "The government needs to hear us."

The Common Front is on strike until Thursday, and CEGEP students will be back in class on Friday.