Quebec education ministry gave inadequate guidance to schools during pandemic: auditor general

Two-and-a-half years after the start of the pandemic, Quebec still doesn't know how classroom closures and a shift to online learning have affected students, according to the province's auditor general.

Two-and-a-half years after the start of the pandemic, Quebec still doesn't know how classroom closures and a shift to online learning have affected students.

Quebec's auditor general released a report Wednesday, revealing that the Ministry of Education didn't give enough guidance to school service centres and school boards in the spring of 2020 and that teaching was unequal and disorganized for several months.

"Some high schools decided to have 50 minutes of distance learning per day, and some other high schools just didn't have any distance learning at all," Guylaine Leclerc told reporters after presenting her audit of the education ministry.

Leclerc's report looked into how virtual learning was handled by Quebec during the start of the pandemic.

When it came to online teaching, her report found that "school boards had to wait until Aug. 10, five months after the pandemic started, to receive clear directives from the education ministry."

Many service centres also did not have the necessary computers to pivot to online education, and for some, that situation persisted 18 months into the pandemic, according to the 180-page report.

"I would describe it as typically, panic-driven. We were all caught unprepared," said Michael Murray, Michael Murray, President of the Eastern Townships School Board.