The election campaign and education: consensus without boldness

Everyone agrees on its importance: education remains a consensus issue. Yet the current campaign gives it a surprisingly modest place, far behind the economy, health and immigration in the leaders’ exchanges and in media coverage.

The parties have not held back on education commitments, though. Comparing them, one finding stands out: the solutions proposed look very much alike from one party to the next, and originality is missing.

Three parties, one idea

Holding an Estates General on the future of education within the first hundred days of a new government is a promise taken up almost word for word by the PLQ, the PQ and QS. It is rare for such a far-reaching measure to win consensus among three parties that disagree on everything else.

The exercise can indeed pool the demands and needs of the education community, but it will still take a plan and clear guidelines. If the goal really is to change things and put new structures and new ways of working in place, the education community will have to be given the chance to apply the recommendations that come out of it.

The CAQ stands apart by rejecting the exercise, arguing that teams on the ground already have the solutions and that a sweeping reform would waste precious time, but its lack of an alternative proposal also leaves a gap in the discussion.

Divided on three-tier schooling

The sharpest debate concerns a multi-tier system made up of public schools, special programs and private schools. Here again, the problem has long been recognized and the intentions are there, but few parties spell out how they actually plan to narrow the gap once in power.

The same problem raised by the Estates General comes up: naming an issue is not enough; there also has to be the will to turn it into concrete action.

A shared diagnosis on staff shortages

The shortage of qualified staff is another point of consensus among the parties. Hiring targets vary from one party to another, but the approach remains similar: add resources to prop up an exhausted network.

This approach mainly treats the symptoms of a shortage that has been known for years, without tackling the reasons previous investments failed to close the gap.

An issue looking for its place

This campaign paints a paradoxical picture of education: an issue no one disputes, but that few parties choose to champion. From one platform to the next, the same findings and the same targets come back, as if the parties had agreed on the broad strokes without bothering to stand out. It remains to be seen whether this lack of boldness reflects a strategic choice or an admission that no one has yet found the angle to set themselves apart.

The commitments exist, but how much they resemble each other raises a question as important as their weak media echo. Will the next government put education at the centre of its decisions at a time when public finances are under pressure?