In primary school, the new “Culture and Civics” course, which will replace the controversial “Ethics and Religious Culture” course, will make way for digital education from the third grade of primary school.
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A total of 14 topics are on the menu for this new course, which will be tested in a pilot project at around thirty primary schools from the start of the school year. Quebec is aiming to roll it out to all Quebec schools by the start of the 2023 school year.
According to the preliminary program for primary education, available online, self-knowledge and interpersonal relationships are addressed from the start of primary education, while identity and ecological transition have a place in fifth and sixth grade (see box below).
The sex education that is already taught in schools will also be integrated into this new content.
This course will occupy the same place in the subject grid as the Ethics and Religious Culture course, which has been criticized several times in recent years. A dozen subjects are covered in secondary education, Le Journal reported at the end of June.
digital education
One of the novelties of this program is to create a formal place for digital education on school desks from the third year of primary school. Students learn how to search the internet for reliable information as they try to understand how social media works and what kind of information circulates there over the following year.
Stephane Villeneuve
Professor at UQAM
In the fifth and sixth years, young people are invited to reflect on “the ubiquity of digital technology in everyday life” and on the “balance conditions to be maintained to avoid situations of dependency” in order to understand the “benefits” and associated risks”.
“Self-expression on the internet” and questions of “online socializing” will be part of the reflections as well as behavior in cyberspace, especially cyberbullying and respect.
Stéphane Villeneuve, a professor at UQAM interested in digital education and cyberbullying, believes that this content, which will soon be taught in all Quebec schools, is “very good news”.
He is particularly pleased that cyberbullying is explicitly mentioned in the show, because it is a “big problem among young people,” he says.
From the first year?
However, Mr. Villeneuve believes that digital education should start in the first year of primary school, since tablets, mobile phones and other screens are already very present in students’ lives at this age.
“Even in kindergarten, parents and their children are fighting against dependence on electronic devices. The rituals of life and everyday life are among the topics covered in the first year, so you’d think the habits around digital devices could easily be one of them,” he says.
Also, the problems surrounding advertising, which are plentiful on online gambling sites, could be tackled from the very beginning of elementary school, according to this expert.
In order for this content to be conveyed well, teachers must also have access to solid training, adds Mr. Villeneuve.
“Not all teachers are very interested in technology. We need to give them access to training so they are up to date with everything that’s happening on the internet,” he stresses.
THE CULTURE AND CITIZENSHIP PROGRAM
* Sex education content must be integrated into these topics.
Source: Ministry of Education