Compulsory education up to age 18 more necessary than ever, experts say

Quebec should make education compulsory until the age of 18: this is one of the key recommendations of a comparative study commissioned by the Literacy Foundation, which believes that the province would have everything to gain to draw inspiration from its Ontario neighbor in terms of education.

The economist Pierre Langlois paints, in this 10-page study published Thursday, the alarming portrait of historical delay that Quebec is facing in terms of graduation and literacy.

Since 2012, the number of people in Quebec who cannot read and interpret texts dense or longslike a newspaper article, is 7% higher than in Ontario.

At this level of literacy, a reality experienced by 53% of Quebecers, it’s disablingsupports the president of the board of directors of the Foundation for Literacy, André Huberdeau, who deplores a 20 year gap between Quebec and Ontario.

We are in the midst of industrial transformation, […] so if at first, you have difficulty recognizing the texts and understanding them […] it is a double disadvantage which has direct impacts on the Quebec economyhe specifies.

The idea behind this is to ensure that Quebecers are better able to adapt to new realities, and these new realities are not in 25 years, they are now.

On the other hand, the high school graduation rate in Ontario is also 5.2% higher than that of Quebec, where 84.3% of students obtain a high school diploma, including those in the private network.

“Quebec is lagging behind Ontario”

Are these differences explained by the success of the Ontario model or by a delay in the Quebec system? According to the report, it is both.

Indeed, at the start of the 2000s, the Quebec and Ontario graduation rates were neck and neck, around 72%.

In 2003, the Dalton McGuinty government initiated a vast reform of Ontario’s education system to achieve the graduation target of 85%. This included increasing the age of compulsory education from 16 to 18 years.

However, in Quebec, it was in the wake of the recommendations of the Parent commission, set up by the government of Jean Lesage in the 1960s, that the age of compulsory school attendance was set at 16 years. This limit has not changed since, although several states, including the United Kingdom and certain American states, have raised it to 18 years.

In the years following the McGuinty reform, Ontario’s graduation rate exploded to reach 83% ten years later, while in Quebec it stood at 78%.

We stopped at the famous 16 years old, while Ontario increased its school attendance to 18 years oldlaments the economist at the head of the study, Pierre Langlois, at the microphone of Midi info. He notes in passing that New Brunswick has also followed in Ontario’s footsteps.

There is a whole stratum of our young Quebecers, including those who drop out, but also those who will stop their studies at 17, who have one year less of general education, and when we evaluate this phenomenon in terms of literacy, Quebec lags behind Ontario, by 7%notes the economist.

Dropping out, the main enemy of graduation

The most worrying figure is in terms of dropoutsbelieves for her part Égide Royer, psychologist specializing in academic success. According to data from the Quebec government, nearly 16% of high school students will have left school without a diploma between 2021 and 2022. Out of 75,000 young people who left school, there are 10,700 who left without a diploma or qualification.says Mr. Royer.

The psychologist relies on a education recommendation at 18 years of age rather than compulsory attendance, to demonstrate greater flexibility while clearly expressing the expectation that one is apprenticed until the age of 18 in Quebec. At 17 or 18 years old, there could be a form of modulation to allow young people to work while pursuing studies, emphasizes Égide Royer.

When we talk about compulsory school attendance, it’s as if we were going to chain 17 or 18 year olds who go backwards to schoolhe illustrates. An education recommendation, it is the idea of ​​providing forms of support and support to young people likely to drop out.

School attendance until age 18 is not an expensive measure, but it does change the graduation rateinsists the former professor of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Laval University.

Notable fact, the graduation gap between girls and boys, a marginal reality in the Atlantic provinces, is also higher by a minimum of 9.3% in Quebec compared to Ontario, indicates the report.

Called to react to the report’s observations, the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, did not wish to comment on them at this time. It simply indicates, by written declaration, take the time to analyze the results of the report et to work has improve the success of our children.

However, the cabinet specifies that the Ministry of Education is reviewing the French program, which will be rolled out in 2026. Despite our question on this subject, it makes no mention of an increase in the school attendance age OBLIGATORY.

With information from Mathieu Papillon