Mass complaints concerning the mandatory ministerial exams

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In matters related to ministerial exams, measures are currently underway to request the removal of the obligation for home-educated children to take ministerial exams.

To help us progress, we need the support of homeschooling families to be clear and strong. For this reason, we are providing you with templates to help you file your complaints. Whether or not your child must take ministerial exams this year, this issue concerns ALL homeschooling families. You are welcomed to invite your friends and family to partake in this initiative. This is not reserved to AQED members.

Among the various templates, you will find models that denounce compulsory tests and explain how they do not correspond to the educational reality of homeschooled children. Other templates expose the injustice suffered by young people who are working towards their certification of their studies, and for whom the Ministry exam will be the only documented grade on their official transcript.

We encourage you to select the template which best applies to your situation, to modify it and to make it as personal as possible. Please feel free to share your letters of complaint on our social networks to support other members in their efforts.

Similarly, we encourage you to complain to your school board if the services offered are unsatisfactory.

When submitting your letter of complaint, please include the address [email protected]. This will permit AQED to monitor the situation. If you are not already a member of AQED, we encourage you to consider becoming one to support our actions. Thank you!

Attention! It is important to personalize your complaint so that it reflects your situation. The best way to make the point that each family is unique and requires a unique approach is to demonstrate it through our actions. Here are some ideas of themes to elaborate on depending on your context:

  • The preparation
  • The commute to and from all exam sessions
  • The adaptations needed
  • The anxiety caused
  • The certification of studies
  • The family planning required
  • The need to reorganize holidays
  • The unknown
  • The inconsistency with the chosen pedagogical approach
  • The lack of useful information transmitted to parents
  • The fact that the exams have no purpose whatsoever
  • The latitude stipulated in the regulation is not respected
  • The child’s unmet needs
  • The lack of feedback

Complain to the DEM

Thanks to this movement, we also have an upcoming meeting with Marwah Rizqy, deputy for St-Laurent and official opposition spokesperson on education.

Answer to the standardized response from the DEM

Many parents have told us about the standardized response they have received from the DEM. Would you like to respond to them and share your dissatisfaction? Here is a template prepared for that purpose.

Complain to the Ministère de l’Éducation

According to section 19 of the Home Schooling Regulation Act, the Minister makes available to parents preparatory documents for the examinations the Minister imposes under the first paragraph of section 463 of the Act and is to ensure that the parents are informed of the standards and procedures for the certification of studies. If you feel that you have not received the necessary and relevant information to prepare for the mandatory ministerial examinations, you can file a complaint via the Ministère de l’Éducation‘s website. Here are templates including a request for withdrawal of the requirement to assist you in formulating your complaint.

Make some noise

Considerable public funding will be spent on this unnecessary and inefficient service. If you wish to make this situation more widely known, please contact:

• Your Member of Parliament
• Your local media

The Quebec Ombudsman

The AQED has already been copied on nearly 250 complaints, and you have been heard! We met with the Québec Ombudsman team on April 13. They told us that they have received hundreds of complaints. Their analysis has been initiated, so it is no longer necessary to send them our mass complaint templates. They will take the time to analyze our file and come back to us in two to three weeks with the next steps.

If, however, you are experiencing a personal issue in your situation (e.g. refusal of adaptations, complexity of travel, loss of income, etc.) and your complaint to your CSS and the DEM has not resulted in a satisfactory resolution, it is entirely appropriate to appeal to the Québec Ombudsman. Be sure to describe the impacts experienced by your family in your own words.

To send your complaint to the Québec Ombudsman, please complete this form.

Legal Actions

The Political and Public Action Committee is currently investigating the possibilities for legal actions on this issue. We need testimonials from families whose children are scheduled to take ministerial exams this year.

We are looking for:

  • Testimonials of one-half to one page maximum that demonstrate concrete prejudices as a result of the implementation of the requirement to take ministerial exams.
  • These prejudices can concern: the child, the parent-educator or the homeschooling family.
  • The harm may stem from consequences related to changes you had to implement in your home education practices, preparation offered or not offered by the School Board (including travel logistics), accommodations obtained or not obtained, taking the exam, possible consequences of the exam (e.g. severe anxiety in the child, etc.).
  • Testimonials should be sent as soon as possible to: [email protected]

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