QUEBEC CITY -- The Jan. 8 announcement about a government-funded tutoring program for students having difficulty with their studies has still not become a reality on the ground, and time is running out, according to Parti Quebecois (PQ) education spokesperson Véronique Hivon.

"It's already very late and there are children for whom it will be insurmountable if we do not take action," she said. "If we want all of this to make sense, and for it to unfold and make a difference before the end of the year, it is really urgent."

Minister of Education Jean-Francois Roberge announced a series of measures to facilitate the return to school after the holiday break lengthened because of COVID-19 on Jan. 8.

Two weeks later, we still do not know when and how the tutoring program will be deployed, or how many volunteers (retired teachers, college students, academics) have been recruited.

Moreover, FQDE (Federation Quebecoise des Directions d'etablissement d'enseignement) presiden Nicolas Prevost wonders if the service be offered face-to-face or remotely.

"How many students per tutoring group? Is it one-on-one? Three-on-one? We are waiting for all these clarifications," he said. "Yes, this is good news, but we are missing some info.

"We see all the work there is to do for our vulnerable students," he added, deploring the gap between the announcement and the implementation of the plan. "The sooner we put it in place, the more beneficial it will be for them."

Another question: the weighting of the first report card that will be given to students from Jan. 22 until Feb. 5.

Originally, this report card was to be worth 50 per cent of the student's final mark, but the minister announced that it will ultimately be worth less, to give struggling students a better chance to recover.

Prevost said he wants the exact weighting to be clarified. Will the first report card be worth 40 per cent of the final mark, and the second, 60 per cent? he asked.

Hivon is pleading for flexibility. In order not to penalize the child unnecessarily, the establishment should be able to choose between the old and the new weighting, according to her.

"A student who would have succeeded because he (or she) had a good first term, but for all kinds of reasons, he (or she) has a more difficult second term, it would be difficult to justify that they're failing," she said.

The child who gets sick, for example, can experience great difficulties, said Hivon, just like students whose class closes and who are forced to switch to virtual mode.

According to official government data, 364 classes were closed as of Jan. 19. That's 359 more than Jan. 11. There are currently 1,904 active cases of COVID-19 in the school network.

The minister's press secretary, Genevieve Cote, told The Canadian Press that the government will wait for the results of the first term before determining the weighting.

"Regarding the tutoring program, an announcement will take place in due course," she added.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2021.