As the new school year has started in Canada, distance courses have not been scheduled for children of UMs stranded in Morocco since the suspension of flights between the two countries for a period of one month. Some pupils express a fear of repeating a grade.
“If I miss a month of school, I’m sure I’ll repeat a year,” worries Reda Nail, a Secondary 3 student in the Pre-Work Training program at Island High School in Gatineau. Like him, many have found themselves stuck with their parents in Morocco since August 29, the date of suspension by Canada of its flights with the kingdom. Some have been able to pay for expensive tickets to return via third countries, but others cannot afford to return home.
While some students hoped to have distance learning courses, Canada has no such plans. “They have already started exams and homework,” says Rabii Rita, a student who was to start her first year of high school in Montreal and who would have liked to have access to distance learning. School doesn’t send me anything ”. If distance courses are deployed for students with medical exemption, they do not cover a situation such as that experienced by Quebecers in Morocco, specifies the Ministry of Education.
According to him, only the service center will be able to determine whether it is able to offer remote services to these students. For its part, the Montreal and Portages-de-l’Outaouais School Service Centers have indicated that these students will be treated like all those outside the country, with the possibility of benefiting from recovery periods and of the mention “not evaluated” instead of that of failure for the failed exams, reports Le Journal de Montréal.
“Teachers do not have the obligation to provide them with educational material because it is an absence linked to a trip,” said Maude Hébert, spokesperson for the Portages-de- Service Center. the Outaouais. Having managed to get help for her son in high school and some exercises for her daughter in elementary school, Leila Bouyous of Quebec City calls on school officials to find a solution for the children.
