Financial education program: hardware incomplete for a new course

Photo Simon Clark
The president of the education Union of the Two Banks, Jocelyn Christmas, has started the first chapter of the manual of financial education. Currently, teachers have received only the first 90 pages of a manual that must be around 230.

Daphnée Dion-Viens

Wednesday, 6th September 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 6th September 2017 00:00

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The teachers who give the new course should financial education begin the school year with equipment that is incomplete, complain they.

“For the moment, it was not at all what we need to start the year,” says a teacher of fifth secondary in the region of Québec, who agreed to speak with us on condition of not being identified.

As other teachers with whom The Journal spoke, he has received only the first chapter of a textbook that will be used to give the new course of financial education. “I started only 90 pages in, on a manual that should count, 231, for an example there, adding that he had not received any training related to the teaching of this new course. “I’m not against this program, on the contrary, but it is the speed and the lack of hardware that is problematic “, he says.

According to the president of the education Union of the Two Banks, Jocelyn Christmas, it is not an isolated case, on the contrary. “Almost all the teachers live the same thing,” he says.

The president of the Federation of trade unions de l’enseignement (FSE-CSQ), Josée Scalabrini, is not surprised of the situation. “I said that it was impossible to get there,” she says.

Implanted in speed

The financial education is included in the schedule of all the pupils of fifth secondary for the first time this year. In the past year, the willingness of the minister of Education, Sébastien Proulx, implement quickly this course has met with a strong opposition from teachers ‘ unions, which have criticized the minister for his willingness.

This new course has been implemented without first being experienced in the form of pilot projects, an unprecedented move for at least twenty years, according to the trade unions. “The teaching, this is not a game. When it’s going too fast, these are the teachers who pay the price, ” laments Ms. Scalabrini.

The ministry of Education, replied that “multiple training sessions” were offered this spring, ” the whole network “. His spokesperson Esther Chouinard, also argues that ” the material of the publishing houses need to start the new school year is in the hands of the schools “.

Contemporary world

In addition, changes to the content of the course contemporary World have also been cringe-teachers of fifth secondary.

This course has gone from 100 to 50 hours, in order to make room in the grid-materials for the new course of financial education. While we had initially suggested that the teachers could choose three of the five themes to teach, the ministry of Education has instead chosen to impose the three themes, one can read in a letter obtained by The Journal, which was forwarded to the school system in July, when many teachers were away on vacation. “There are teachers angry because they have had to throw it in the trash materials that they had prepared during the summer,” says Ms. Scalabrini.

The ABC’s of the new course of financial education

• Mandatory for all students in the 5th secondary
• A duration of 50 hours
• Topics covered : debt and savings, compensation and taxation, purchasing power