Equality of opportunity should not be compromised at CEGEPSWhatever one may think of the provincial government’s responsibility to aid higher education, it is the very policies of that government that have made CEGEPS very much an extension of the public education system over the past decades. As such, the government has a responsibility to assure that all citizens have a right to equal opportunity of access. Regardless of language. It does not mean dollar for dollar funding. But it does mean funding that – pro rated – affords the means for English CEGEPS to serve the community.as fully as the French CEGEPS do. English students should not be the victims of discrimination by language. The metaphor is civil rights. The message is that benign neglect cannot be allowed to stand. There are only five English CEGEPS as compared to over 150 French ones. The nationalists’ pressure to impose language restrictions on those five in order to protect French, falls flat in the face of the numbers. If the government’s reticence in providing the material assets the English schools need is in some measure driven by politics, it should not be. This is not a questions of language. It is a question of fairness. It is also a question of value for money. Non-francophones may account for only 20% of Quebec’s population. But in Montreal – the province’s economic engine with some two-thirds of its GDP – non-francophones “de souche” compromise a majority on the island. Furthermore,the amount of taxes collected by Revenue Quebec from non-francophones far outstrips their numbers as a percentage of total revenues taken in. Yet right now English high school students with the marks to make it are being rejected at English CEGEPS because they don’t have the resources to take in all those who make the grade. This is not only unjust, it defrauds a significant part of Quebec taxpayers of what has become – through government policy – an essential service. It is just that because it is the foundation of equality of opportunity in the job market. Additionally – and indirectly – English students are being penalized for their own success. If we assume for a moment that Quebec’s education ministry sets funding levels for CEGEPS based on French high school numbers, those levels will be compromised by statistics. The dropout rate at French schools is, sadly, far higher than at English schools. And the number of applications to English CEGEPS is double that of French ones. And not all the applications are from Anglophones. Many are from Francophones who want to polish their English for the national, continental and international job markets. Indeed, Vanier and Dawson have 17-18% of their students who are Francophone. The two schools have applications that are up 24 and 20 per cent respectively. Overall, Montreal CEGEPS have seen a rise in applications of 8.5%. But English CEGEPS have an increase of 17.5%. So English schools are compromised twice. First, by the nationalist pressure to limit English services. Second, by the skewed funding levels based on underperforming French schools. This is a problem that affects Anglophone and Francophone students. Equality of opportunity should not be crushed on the anvil political expediency. Let’s do the right thing Quebec and let kids learn.
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