MONTREAL -- Quebec's students are suffering academically during the pandemic, their grades show, but the province's Education Minister sounded an optimistic note on Wednesday -- while also saying the weighting of report cards will change.
New data on grades, taken from a sample of 84,000 students from 198 public schools and 16 private schools, showed the province's already-high failure rate for some subjects has increased compared to last year.
Of the surveyed schools, 33 were English-language, but data on failure rates along language lines was not made available.
The survey looked exclusively at grades in language and math and showed that around a quarter of students are failing.
The failure rate for math in secondary three rose to 25.6 per cent, a jump of three per cent from the year before, while the failure rate for the same subject in secondary four increased by 4.2 per cent to 23.2 per cent.
In Quebec, a student passes with a grade of at least 60 per cent.
Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge chose to focus on the bright side, saying that students are facing enormous challenges during the pandemic, such as isolation and stress, as well as only being in class half the time.
“Behind the statistics, there's the reality of each student,” he said.
He noted that the province actually showed improvement in some areas, as the failure rate for sixth-grade math dropped from 7.7 to 6.8 per cent.
The failure rate dropped even more for secondary-one math students, falling from 19.4 per cent to 16.3 per cent.
Roberge said the government is committed to providing teachers and students with the support they need, touting the province's long-awaited tutoring program as a key component of their plan.
“I think it's important to face the truth and see it is what it is,” said Roberge.
“It's almost the same as last year but there is an increase in the failure rate for math. That's why we will continue to put some money and give some help to hire support staff and go with our tutoring programs. We won't let students down.”
Roberge said given the situation, the province will change how it weighs grades when it comes to graduating high school students gaining acceptance to CEGEPs. Only two report cards will be issued, instead of three, and the second will count for a higher percentage of a student's final grade.
In 2018, Quebec had the lowest graduation rate of any province, with 64 per cent of public school students finishing on time.
“We've decided to change the weighting of the report card," he said.
"We decided to set the first report card as 35 per cent and the second as 65 per cent. But in Quebec, at the end of the day, you need 60 per cent to move on.”
