Quebec to cut world history course in half in rush to add financial education
Consultations with schools boards amounted to half-hour conference call, teachers' union vice-president says
Teachers' unions in Quebec say the province's education minister Sébastien Proulx is rushing through plans to introduce financial literacy courses next fall.
The proposed mandatory economics course would teach high school students how to manage their personal finances and understand credit scores, loans and budgeting.
The new course will come at the expense of the contemporary world course, which addresses topics like genocide, the environment and the distribution of wealth and power. Its overall aim is to help students understand the complexity of the world and be open to diversity.
The ministry will cut the teaching time for the contemporary world course in half to make way for the new financial education class.
Minimal consultation with teacher unions
When the course was announced in October, Jennifer Maccarone, chair of the Sir Wildrid Laurier School Board, applauded the move but stressed that school boards should be consulted.
One teachers' union representative now says the ministry's consultations amounted to a half-hour conference call with the unions a few weeks ago.
"Everybody said 'there's no need to rush, it's not a way to consult teachers, it's going to put more pressure on teachers,' and it's very disappointing," said Caroline Quesnel, vice-president of the FNEEQ, a union that represent about 30,000 teachers cross the province.
Introducing the course in haste won't leave enough time to properly develop it, said Sebastien Joly, president of Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, which represents 8,000 teachers in the province's English school system.
Joly added that the course was too narrowly focused and students and teachers in the English sector will be left behind.
"To go through the whole translation process, we're almost 100 per cent sure that no material will be available in English to allow teachers to teach that course and implement that course as of 2017," he said.
The new course will partially replace a broader economics course that was eliminated in 2009.
With files from Lauren McCallum