The Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec, better known as the Parent Commission, was a commission established in 1961 by the newly elected Lesage government to investigate the education system in Quebec up until the 1960s. It was chaired by Mgr Alphonse-Marie Parent, and consisted of 8 members. The resulting report, the Parent Report, published between 1963-66 in 5 volumes, consisted of nearly 1500 pages, and proposed some 500 recommendations that led to following major reforms of the then church-dominated education system:
Creation of the Ministry of Education in 1964 to ensure a centralised, state-controlled education system serving the mass population; Creation of the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation in 1964 to advise the Minister of Education on any education-related issues; Age for compulsory schooling raised from 14 to 16; Creation of collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEPs) in 1967 to replace classical colleges administered by the Roman Catholic clergy; The Parent Commission, as a product of the Quiet Revolution, helped to create one public, unified, comprehensive, democratic, education system accessible to everyone at all levels, which in turn helped to reduce disparities between men and women, urban and rural, English and French populations.
History
From July 1960, the Liberal government led by Jean Lesage who believed that 'an education system corresponding to our needs and open to all, rich or poor, urban or rural dwellers, is vital to our economic progress and the gradual increase in our standard of living', had adopted new legislation in favour of an education reform which were collectively known under the title Grand Charte de l’éducation'. It was a series of measures aiming at overcoming century-old elitism and at promoting universal accessibility to all levels of education through a reformed network of institutions and the establishment of financial assistance programs. Among these measures, the Parent Commission was created on April 21, 1961.
Before the pedagogical reform initiated by the Parent Commission in the 60's, the situations in Quebec's educational environments was a 'real hodgepodge': schools were designated as either Catholic or Protestant, administered by more than 1,500 school boards divided by confessionality, with each school board in charge of its own curriculum, textbooks, and recognition of diplomas.
The under-schooling of French Canadians was apparent: compared with 36% of English-speaking students, only 13% of French-speaking students complete Grade 11. Moreover, 63% of French-speaking students stopped at Grade 7. At higher education, the discrepancy was apparent from 1960 university enrolment statistics showing that only 3% of French Canadians aged between 20-24 attended university, whereas enrolment at the 3 English universities in Quebec represented 11% of English-speakers in the same age group.
By the time the Commission was formed, due to post-war prosperity in terms of both population and economic growth, baby boomers were reaching adolescence, and the province was in dire need of adequate training programs to respond to the increasing demand for specialised labour that met an industrialised society's need.
In the early 1960s, changes were also in the mind of practitioners of Catholic faith, which were brought out by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) that aimed at integrating modern human experience with church principles.
Members
The Commissioners were selected to represent various sectors of Quebec society: male-female, English-French, Catholic-Protestant, academic-business, private-public, and lay-religious. Among the 8 members, there were:
6 men and 2 women
6 French Canadians, one Irish, and one Scottish
7 Catholics and one Protestant, all practicing at the time
4 university professors and one businessman
7 representing private institutions (universities and colleges were private schools), with the Irish person being the only person representing public sector 6 Montrealers and 2 Quebecers; but nobody represented a rural area
One of the two women was a sister. 6 out of 8 members were trained in the classical colleges, which were mostly boys' institutions (among some 100 classical colleges, only about 20 admitted girls). The members were: