Young Quebecers lack motivation at school: survey

Young Quebecers lack motivation when it comes to school. This is what a survey commissioned by the Réseau québécois pour la réussite éducatif (RQRE) revealed.

It comes as Monday marked the start of the 21st edition of the School Perseverance Week – from Feb. 10 to 14.

The survey sent by the RQRE to The Canadian Press shows that 45 per cent of respondents consider the level of motivation of the children around them to be low, or very low, compared to only 39 per cent who find it high or very high. However, the overwhelming majority of respondents, 85 per cent, say they are concerned about dropping out of school. This is even more true in wealthy households and among francophones.   

Even more are concerned about the mental health of students (89 per cent), and 80 per cent agree that the mental health of young people has deteriorated over the past five years.  

Mental health is indeed a factor in dropping out of school, as confirmed by Andrée Mayer-Périard, the president of the RQRE. The relationship with screens is also an important factor, according to her. She indicates that a quarter of Quebec teenagers spend more than four days in front of screens — a figure that is increasing. School interruptions, particularly related to the COVID-19 pandemic and strikes, also contribute to this result. “Now, all of this is not inevitable,” reassures Mayer-Périard. We have to support them, and then we have to work with them.” 

She also explains that it is not necessarily grand gestures that will make a difference. “We must not underestimate the importance of encouragement. We surveyed young people several years ago, young people who had thought about dropping out and young people who had dropped out and then hung up. Many of them told us that what made the difference was the encouragement from adults who do not give up and who are there for them,” says the president of the RQRE. She also mentions that dropping out of school is a phenomenon that takes a long time to set in and therefore requires a response in everyday life and over the long term. 

Work rather than study 

The survey also shows that only 73 per cent of Quebecers are concerned that the province’s labour shortage could encourage young people to work instead of finishing their studies. Paradoxically, 90 per cent of them believe that a young person’s place is in school.  

Mayer-Périard is not too worried about this point, because, she explains, the attraction of the world of work created by the shortage of labour “has tended to calm down a little” over the past two years.  

“Currently, we can’t say that the job market is favourable to young people, we’re in a kind of backlash,” she said. “Two years ago, it was crazy. The salaries that were offered to young people (for jobs) that required no qualifications were very high. These salaries have not gone down, so, for some young people, it will remain something attractive.” It’s rather this last point that concerns her. “We don’t think that, when we don’t even have our secondary 5 diploma, we have what we need in our backpack to survive in the next 10 years on the job market that is ahead of us, because of the economic context.” 

A study by economist Pierre Langlois on high socio-economic vulnerability highlighted last year that the level of literacy, or the ability of an individual to read, write, work from a text and from numerical data, was too low in the province. We speak of high vulnerability when a person’s socio-economic development is slowed down by limited income combined with insufficient basic skills. However, according to Langlois, the level of literacy, acquired through education, is a key element in getting out of, or simply avoiding, high socio-economic vulnerability. 

Three major perceived causes 

For those surveyed, three problems weigh particularly heavily on the Quebec education system: overcrowded classes (45 per cent), a lack of public funding (34 per cent) and dropping out of school (34 per cent). Almost all maintain that a concerted effort is needed from the educational community and society to promote educational success and that more must be done to promote academic perseverance.  

It is with this in mind that the Quebec Network for Educational Success is organizing the Journées de la perseverance scolaire from Feb. 10 to 14. According to data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ), the rate of leaving high school without a diploma or qualification among young people in general education is 16 per cent for the 2021-2022 school year, while it was 13.5 per cent two years earlier. 

On the occasion of this week dedicated to academic perseverance, the RQRE invites every adult who has a young person in their entourage to adopt a positive attitude by showing them their support, listening to them and valuing each progress and each attempt. “The success of our young people is everyone’s business,” insists Mayer-Périard. 

Dr. Égide Royer, psychologist and specialist in academic success, points out a key factor that can make a considerable difference: learning to read. According to the expert, it is at the stage of learning to read that most difficulties can be avoided. “If you don’t know how to read, after the third grade, you will have difficulty in all other subjects,” he maintains. 

He adds that not all parents are equal when it comes to educating their children; each has their own shortcomings. The encouragement that all parents can provide must be accompanied by appropriate support from institutions to avoid accumulating delays. 

The survey commissioned by the Réseau québécois pour la réussite éducatif was conducted by the Léger firm between Dec. 9 and 22 among 1,567 Quebecers between the ages of 18 and 59 who could express themselves in French or English via an online questionnaire. There is no margin of error for non-probability surveys. However, Léger indicates as an indication that for a probability sample of the same size, the maximum margin of error is 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.