Open since the start of the school year, the very first “new generation” secondary school in Quebec was officially inaugurated on Monday, although modular classes will have to be installed there from next year since its capacity will already be exceeded.
The general director of the Premières-Seigneuries service center, Marie-Claude Asselin, affirms that it was impossible to predict such an increase in customers for the Phare secondary school, construction of which began in 2021 on the site of the former Quebec Zoological Garden.
“It’s not bad planning, it’s new students arriving to us, particularly from immigration,” she says.
The service center learned this summer, in July, that it will have to educate 900 more students than expected next year in the northern sector of Charlesbourg, according to new projections from the Ministry of Education.
Around fifteen additional premises should be built there next year.
A class at the new Phare secondary school in Charlesbourg.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
An “excellent plan B”
Present at the inauguration of the new secondary school on Monday, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, reaffirmed that the increase in the number of students to be educated is “essentially” explained by “the increase in temporary immigration ” in recent years, again blaming the federal government.
“We are building new schools, but we are not providing them,” he said, while defending modular classes.
“Our plan A is to build, expand, renovate, but it’s an excellent plan B, a modular one. Nowadays, we no longer talk about construction trailers, they are completely modern infrastructures,” added the minister.
The school includes several collaborative spaces, where students can work in teams.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
A new inclusive school
Le Phare secondary school is the first secondary school built on the Premières-Seigneuries territory since 1976.
Many students are delighted to attend this brand new and bright new establishment, which includes several collaborative spaces.
“It definitely motivates me more to come to school. It’s more pleasant to work with so much light and to be surrounded by motivated people,” says
Alice Potvin, a second secondary student.
Students leave their coats and boots at the school entrance in small lockers, which makes it easier to monitor students.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
This secondary school is a neighborhood school which does not offer specific selective projects, but rather the same profile for all students who can choose specific periods of lessons according to their interests, in order to help them discover their passions.
The inauguration of this new school on Monday also provided access
students and the community to an additional hiking space on the site of the former Zoological Garden, which had been inaccessible since 2006.
The school is separated into five “communities”, one sector per level, where students can deposit their school materials in a second locker located near their classes.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Phare Secondary School
- Capacity of 1250 students
- Inclusive school with the same profile is offered to all
- Investment of $174 million
- Located on the site of the former Quebec zoological garden, in Charlesbourg
- First secondary school built since 1976
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