Teachers don’t need guidelines: QESBA

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Quebec’s English schools do not need a set of rules regarding reasonable accommodation practices, the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) told the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation during the second day of national hearings in Montreal this morning.

QESBA President Marcus Tabachnick, a Dollard des Ormeaux resident and chairman of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, presented the commission with a nine-paged memoir stating that since school boards were changed from confessional to linguistic 10 years ago, teachers and administrators in QESBA’s nine member school boards have been able to deal with reasonable accommodation requests with little difficulty.

“I believe we do it well, for the most part. There can always be problems, but for the most part, we do it well with very little problems,” Tabachnick told The Chronicle. “Almost all requests are dealt with and resolved at the school level.”

At the end of November, representatives of the Syndicat de l‘Enseignement de l’Ouest de Montréal (SEOM), a private union representing the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board (CSMB) teachers of the West Island, asked for guidelines to help teachers and schools deal with reasonable accommodation requests, and determine which ones really are “reasonable.” They said that, since the high-profile “kirpan case” that began in 2001 and was settled in the Supreme Court of Canada nearly five years later, teachers are nervous about dealing with such requests out of fear of media attention and reaction.

QESBA, however, took an opposite point of view.

“I think we have to point out that, as far as the English school system is concerned, we don’t see the crisis that seems to be present in people’s minds in general; certainly not the way it’s being portrayed in the media,” Tabachnick said.

The QESBA memoir also mentioned the new Ethics and Religious Culture Program (ERCP) that will begin in Quebec schools in September 2008. Tabachnick believes the programs will help improve students’ understanding of religions and cultures from around the world, as long as all the tools are in place.

“As always, when new programs are introduced, we want to be sure the teaching materials are in place on time, in English for the English system,” he said.

However, as for reasonable accommodation rules in schools, Tabachnick and QESBA believe it is unnecessary for the English system.

“We have continued to do what we have to do for kids and their families, and it’s been working well,” he said. “What we’re hoping is that we don’t end up with a whole series of regulations for an issue that isn’t an issue for us.”