Excerpts
Nearly 30 per cent of daycares evaluated between 2018 and 2023, including 41 per cent in 2022-23, failed the educational quality evaluation prepared by the Ministry of Families, auditor general Guylaine Leclerc says in a four-part report tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday.
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Speaking to reporters, Leclerc said she saw a “correlation” between failure rates and the lack of qualified educators; the proportion of daycares that did not have at least two out of three qualified educators increased to 46 per cent from 32 per cent between 2018 and 2023.
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Moreover, the number of complaints relating to “inappropriate attitudes or practices” increased 76 per cent, from 203 in 2018-2019 to 358 in 2022-2023.
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The ministry’s interventions are “insufficient to prevent frequent failures relating to the health and safety of children,” Leclerc says.
In her report, she mentions expired medications, improperly stored toxic cleaning products, and above all, “problems” concerning background checks that occurred in more than 20 per cent of inspections.
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“We have figures that show us that what we have been so proud of for 25 years, well, it is a network that is in the process of deteriorating,” Parti Québécois families critic Joël Arseneau said Thursday.
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For its part, the Ministry of Families said in the report that “during the period covered by the audit, educational child care services had to face the COVID-19 pandemic and an unprecedented labour shortage.
“The mobilization as well as the constant and sustained efforts of the (educational childcare) network have made it possible to ensure quality service despite the challenges inherent to the pandemic context.”
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Educational quality assessment measure failure rate (2022-23):
- CPE: 21%
- Subsidized daycare: 57%
- Unsubsidized daycare: 59%
- Failure rate for 2022-2023: 41%
- Cumulative since 2018: 30%
The report can be accessed in French here.