Budgetary restrictions make a first victim in the school network: the Beaupré adult education center, located near Quebec, closes its doors.
Director Annie Element made the advertising members of it last week in an email obtained by The newspaper.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of the Beaupré adult education center at the end of the current school year. This difficult decision was made due to significant budgetary constraints and a continuous decrease in the number of students “in this point of service, we read.
“The available resources are no longer enough to ensure the proper functioning of the center,” adds Mme Element.
Students currently registered in this point of service will be able to continue their training in other adult education centers, the nearest being located 35 kilometers from Beaupré.
Mme Element refused our request for an interview on this subject, sending us to the School Service Center of the Premier-Seigneuries, which did not respond to our request in the past few days.
Shortfall $ 750,000
According to our information, the first school service center of first-site must slash $ 750,000 in the overall budget for adult education in 2025-2026, due to the budgetary restrictions imposed by Quebec.
This shortfall is added to another issue linked to the financing rules of the Ministry of Education, which determines the sums to be paid to adult education based on the number of students registered two years earlier.
For the year 2025-2026, the Premier-Seigneuries services center will receive funding for 680 students, which is similar to the attendance of the 2023-2024 school year, while 789 students were registered in adult education this year.
The director of adult education had put aside sums to fill this shortfall, but Quebec now refuses that the service centers are pigning in their surplus to finance services, indicates André Bernier, president of the Quebec Association of School Management Staff (AQPDE).
Compromise services during the year?
The lack of funding is so great that the services offered in the other three adult education centers in the Premier-Seigneuries could even be compromised during the school year, said Mr. Bernier.
“Management told me that it would not be able to make a full year, it will not have the necessary funding to offer service to all students registered,” he said.
“It means that we will have to make choices between the students and that some will be left out,” deplores the teacher Patrick Deschênes, who recalls how a “vulnerable” clientele is.
The budgetary restrictions imposed by Quebec in education amount to at least $ 570 million for the year 2025-2026.
Last week, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, said that “records have been invested in the past seven years” in the school network, which represents an increase of 58%.
“Now you have to use them more efficiently. Getting over the budgets granted by the State cannot become a habit, “he said in a written declaration.
“School service centers will have to make choices,” he added.
At the Ministry of Education, it is specified that the level of financing “evolves from one year to another according to the financial parameters in force”. The number of students declared is however not the only parameter used to determine the financing of school service centers for adult education, it is said in a written response.
