Magdelhayne F. Buteau Retrospective on the Parent Report The creation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Educa­ tion in 1961 proved to be one of the major events of Quebec's political and social revolution. The publication of its Report, commonly referred to as the Parent Report after the chair­ man, Mgr. Alphonse Parent, launched an educational reform which in its essential features continues to the present time. Mgr. Parent, who died in October of 1970, was of the opinion that the implementation of the Report's recommenda­ tions would require a period of from ten to fifteen years. It would seem to be an appropriate time, then, for an inventory of the results as seen by the Commissioners themselves and by some key personnel in provincial educational policy-making. Essentially, we have attempted, through a series of interviews, to ascertain their views on the validity of the Parent Report's proposals and the progress made toward achieving its goals. Five of the Commissioners were available for interviews, and to extend our perspective further, we have also inter­ viewed four educational leaders in the Province who were not members of the Commission. participants The former Commissioners include: GERARD FILION, now President of Marine Industries Lim­ ited, was Managing Director of Le Devoir at the time of his appointment to the Commission. Although primarily commit­ ted to economics and business, he has always shown great in­ terest in education as school board member and chairman of the first regional school board in the Province. 189 Retrospective on the P.. ent Report JEANNE LApOINTE is professor of French literature at Laval University, a post she held when she was named to the Commission. During the fifties she was a literary critic for Cite Libre and more recently she has served on the Commis­ sion on Higher Education of the Superior Council of Educa­ tion and the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Professor Lapointe regularly acts as consultant for national and provincial cultural organizations. JOHN McILHONE was Assistant Director of Studies in charge of English classes at the Montreal Catholic School Commission when he was appointed to the Parent Commis­ sion. He has had wide experience in teaching, teacher educa­ tion, adult education and administration and at present holds the post of Deputy Director General of the Montreal Catholic School Commission. DA VID MUNROE was Director of McGill's Institute of Educa­ tion at Macdonald College at the time of his appointment, and in 1964 he replaced Gerard FiIion as vice-chairman of the Commission. He also served as vice-chairman of the Superior Council of Education from 1964 to 1969 and has just com­ pleted a three-year term as special advisor to the Department of the Secretary of State in Ottawa. SISTER GHISLAINE ROQUET, c.s.c., was chairman of the philosophy department of Basile-Moreau College in Montreal when she became a member of the Commission. In recent years she has served as Canada's delegate to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights and has participated in a UNES­ CO symposium on education. At present she is in charge of the university branch of the Provincial Media Centre in the Ministry of Education and is an executive member of the Multi-Media Adult Education project. The non-Commissioners include: THERESE BARON is Assistant Deputy Minister of Education and has special responsibilities for elementary and secondary schools. She has had considerable experience as teacher, prin­ cipal, and leader of professional associations and has served on various planning and advisory committees including the Superior Council. JEAN-GUY CARDINAL, a notary and teacher of law, is now one of the Unite-Quebec (formerly Union Nationale) members of the National Assembly. In 1967 he was named Minister of 190 Magdelhayne F. Buteau Education, a portfolio he held for almost three years, and a year after his appointment he was elected to the National As­ sembly as representative for Daniel Johnson's former riding. Before entering politics he was on the Commission on Higher Education of the Superior Council and was Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universite de Montreal. C. W. DICKSON has had an active career as teacher, adminis­ trator, and consultant and in 1960 was already introducing such innovations as subject promotion and continuous pro­ gress. Subsequently he has been an associate secretary to the Parent Commission, Director of the Lakeshore Regional School Board, and was appointed Associate Deputy Minister of Education in 1967. Since his retirement from the Depart­ ment of Education in 1971 he has been serving as interim secretary-treasurer of the Provisional Council of the Lake­ shore School Board. LEOPOLD GARANT has been president of the Superior Council of Education since 1968. For several years he was president and later special advisor to the provincial French-speaking teachers' association, formerly the Corporation des Institu­ teurs Catholiques, now the Corporation des Enseignants du Quebec. orientation of the interviews During the fall of 1971 and the spring of 1972, each person was interviewed individually. The sessions were informal and non-directive in nature but the focus was on three closely re­ lated questions: 1. What do you consider the essential features of the Parent Report? 2. To what degree have the essential recommendations of the Report been implemented? 3. What do you consider the most significant reforms implemented during the past decade? In order to eliminate undue repetition and provide continuity, the responses for the most part have been paraphrased. Al­ though we have not been able to include as many of the obser­ vations of the respondents as they may have a right to expect, we have tried to be faithful to the style and substance of their remarks. 191 Retrospective on the Parent Report what do you consider the essential features of the Parent Report? The responses of the former Commissioners: FILION: The fundamental concepts were the official recog­ nition of the right of all Quebecers to equal opportunities for higher and better study programs, the creation of a respon­ sible Ministry of Education, and the principe de polyvalence that aimed at doing away with the existing parallel systems which precluded any kind of academic or professional reorien­ tation. The introduction of comprehensiveness at the second­ ary level and the creation of a polyvalent post-secondary level constitute the significant break-through of the Report because the innovations were likely to promote business and tech­ nological careers so badly needed to invigorate Quebec's economy. LApOINTE: The recommended appointment of a Minister of Education and the assigning of coordination as one of his explicit functions deserve first mention. Un organisme uni­ ficateur was badly needed to counteract the detrimental lin­ guistic, denominational, cultural, socio-economic, and academic partitioning that had grown throughout the Quebec educa­ tional system. The intended democratization of education was basic to the Report. It aimed at overcoming fallacious elitism and at promoting universal accessibility to all levels of educa­ tion through the establishment of a well-articulated network of institutions, the organization of adequate transportation facilities, and the extension of financial assistance programs. The introduction of a post-secondary pre-university level was a daring suggestion for promoting, among other changes, the healthy mixage social et professionnel des jeunes Quebecois. Such a mingling is becoming more and more necessary because of the urbanization and industrialization that are going on in many of the formerly rural regions. McILHONE: The proposed creation of a Ministry of Educa­ tion was most challenging. It aimed at removing one of the most important portfolios from the protection of a nominated Superintendent in order to place it under the aegis of an elec­ ted responsible Minister who would have to explain and de­ fend his policies and decisions. However, in order to avoid the pitfalls of a system that had been tried unsuccessfully in the nineteenth century, the proposal for one Minister to direct one 192 Magdelhayne F. Buteau education system had to be accompanied by allowance for cultural and religious differences. The priority given to the cultural format implies far-reaching consequences. MUNROE: It was necessary for the commissioners to reach a consensus on objectives that were not only in line with modern educational trends but were also tailored to Quebec's own economic and social patterns of development. The most funda­ mental proposal concerned the urgency of establishing a sys­ tem that would insure universal, diversified and continuous education to all Quebecers. Such a system was necessary in order to improve an existing school situation with unequal facilities, inadequate resources, and limited services for a large portion of the population. Of prime practical importance were the suggestions that the new school system be unified, comprehensive, centralized, and democratic. RoQUET: The following four principles constitute the seminal concepts of the Report. First, the school should be primarily centred on the student and on the "parent-student­ teacher constellation" rather than on concerns of administra­ tion, curriculum, and structure. Second, the school should be considered in a universal perspective in the sense that it should be opened and adapted to all, independent of creed, social origin, sex, language, and age. Third, society at large should be responsible for the cost of educating the young. For too long a time, private organizations have borne this burden almost exclusively. Fourth, the Parent Report showed that attention should be given to the new social dynamics arising from irre­ versible processes of urbanization and from the formation of new pressure groups. These four concepts are contained in the first part of the Report which deals mainly with principles and designs.