Presentation. Image credit: Unsplash/airfocus
Montreal/CMEDIA: Several parents were reportedly upset after officials with the Quebec Education Ministry refused to deliver a presentation in English to parents of special needs students who go to English schools.
When asked why they couldn’t present in English to the roughly 65 parents who joined the Zoom session Thursday evening, one of the public servants said, in French, that he would have liked to have done the presentation it in English but the law currently doesn’t allow it
The parents were then told by the special education coordinator with the Ministry of Education that the officials don’t have the right to do the presentation in English.
Meant to provide information to parents about education and training programs, the presentation was offered by the ministry to help them make decisions about educational paths for their children in school.
A presentation for parents of francophone students had already been offered by the ministry, and the one on Thursday, which was in the works for months, was meant exclusively for English parents.
Although the slides of the presentation were in English, the coordinator spoke exclusively in French for about 20 minutes explaining the educational pathways.
The coordinators who at that time said they couldn’t deliver the presentation in English, nevertheless later answered questions in English during the Q&A portion of the session.
A reported recording of the Zoom session showed parents’ frustrations in the online chat during the meeting.
The ministry of education did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
