Sherbrooke public secondary schools will not hold open days this fall. Expected each year by students and parents, activity is no longer considered a priority by the directions which must tighten the belt to respect their budget.
“I find it absurd that a child cannot have access to the doors open,” drops Julie Martin, mother of two young boys from Sherbrooke.
This year, his elder will have to be satisfied with an informative leaflet to choose his future secondary school.
In an email sent earlier this week, the School Service Center in the Region-de-Sherbrooke announced that there would be no open days in its public schools this fall, as for more than 25 years.
“This difficult decision was not taken lightly by the directions of our schools, and we are well aware that it could arouse disappointment,” he wrote.
The school organization evokes the budgetary efforts imposed on the education network to explain the cancellation of the activity, which requires “significant financial and human resources”.
Interim president of the Quebec School Management Staff, André Bernier deplores that a school service center should get there. “I was surprised to learn that,” he says.
For school departments, open days have a “capital importance”. “This is what will allow schools to get their student pool,” he said.
Above all, they allow the graduates of the primary to get a better idea of the choices available to them, in particular the programs offered by the establishments.
«In 5e et 6e Year, we don’t know what to go. It allows you to make discoveries and perhaps orient her school career, ”underlines Mélanie Laviolette, president of the Federation of Parents of Quebec.
Julie Martin abounds in the same direction. According to her, nothing replaces a visit on site. “It is by feeling the atmosphere, seeing future teachers, future students that children can get an idea,” she said.
Shortfall of 4 million
Faced with generalized discontent, the Caquist government had reinvested $ 540 million in the school network in mid-July, on the condition that they are used to finance direct services to students.
But this is not enough to cover all expenses, says the director of the CSSRS General Secretariat and Communications Service Donald Landry.
“We still have a shortfall of $ 4 million,” he explains. To respect its budget, the school organization did not have the choice to put the ax in everything that is not essential.
“It is unfortunate because it was a beautiful showcase to highlight both the programs, the pedagogy, the student life and the culture of the school,” recognizes Mr. Landry.
