Quebec keeping a close eye on schools offering Grade 12 programs
Grade 12 is nothing new at North Star Academy in Laval.
The non-public faculty has been providing this system since 2015, and could have about 40 graduates this 12 months.
“It’s getting an increasing number of fashionable as folks see that they do have alternate options and selections,” mentioned the top of the college, Josée Pepin.
Final week, International Information first reported about Kuper Academy’s plans to launch its Grade 12 program in 2023.
This system would enable college students to acquire an Ontario Secondary College Diploma, which suggests they’ll skip CEGEP altogether and enter college straight.
College officers mentioned that they had been planning this system for years, however introduced it now to allay fears amid the adoption of Invoice 96.
Now, Quebec’s Training Ministry is weighing in, saying it’s “monitoring the faculties that provide Grade 12 applications, which aren’t approved by the minister of training or the minister of upper training.”
“This sends a really damaging message concerning the standard of each francophone and anglophone CEGEPs, which each provide glorious pre-university training,” it added.
However the head of North Star Academy in Laval says it’s not a risk to CEGEPs, they’re merely providing another.
“Even francophones can do a Grade 12 if they’ve an English base,” mentioned Pepin. “A few of them wish to go to america to do sure sports activities. So we must always have the suitable to training and to proceed our training it doesn’t matter what.”
There’s a lengthy record of faculties in Quebec that provide Grade 12, and a few have been doing it for many years.
There are even non-public French faculties, like Marie de France and School Stanislas, that provide a diploma based mostly on the college system in France, which additionally permits college students to skip CEGEP.
The Quebec Affiliation of Impartial Faculties says this was by no means a difficulty earlier than, and so it shouldn’t be now.
“It’s probably not the job, in my opinion, to intervene or to quash a non-public program,” mentioned Chris Shannon, chair of the federal government relations committee on the Quebec Affiliation of Impartial Faculties.
Quebec’s training minister declined International Information’ request for an interview on this topic.
A spokesperson wouldn’t reply to questions on if they’d make any legislative adjustments to forbid Grade 12 within the province — and the way that will have an effect on college students already enrolled.
