Quebec parents, students bracing for 7-day strike by public sector unions

As hundreds of thousands of public sector workers gear up to go on strike again from December 8 to the 14, students and parents are bracing for how that will impact them.

In a memo to parents on Wednesday, the English Montreal School Board announced that mid-year exams taking place in January at its high schools have been cancelled.

“Our decision aims to provide teachers with more time and allow students to focus on learning without the added burden of impending board exams,” the memo read, but it does not “preclude teachers from holding in-class assessments.”

“I know they’re doing the right thing, but it’s definitely shocking. It sends the message that perhaps there’s not an end in sight,” said Katherine Korakakis English Parents’ Committee Association (EPCA) president.

Korakakis says although parents fully support teachers, the strikes are having a major impact on parents and students’ education.

“Guess what? Not everybody has the network, the support system, a job that’s flexible that allows you to work from home. People have different realities. But the impact on the most vulnerable — this is who is impacted — children with special needs, children with learning disabilities, children who have difficult situations at home,” she said.

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The Lester B. Pearson School Board also sent out a note to parents Wednesday advising them of school closures, if a deal isn’t reached before December 8.

Meanwhile, on the college side, students might be in the classroom or may be taking exams during the winter holidays, as administrators try to find ways to hold the required number of classes in a semester.

“If we want to have an 82-day semester, we might in certain CEGEPs be forced to have pedagogical activities after Christmas, at the end of December or January.”

Tremblay says the other option is that Quebec Higher Education Minister could authorize that a semester is complete, with fewer days.

At the national assembly Thursday, Education Minister Bernard Drainville says he’s very concerned about the impact the strike is having on students and their success, but the government has yet to decide if it will put any measures in place to make up for the lost school days.

“We will still have to make an assessment of what do we do with the days that have been lost, the days of teaching, the days of school that have been lost. And we will make a decision thereafter,” he said.