Quebec’s education minister is refusing to sign off on a contentious new high school history program that has been harshly criticized by the province’s minority communities.
An official in the Education Department as well as several other sources familiar with the new curriculum are confirming that minister Sebastien Proulx has stopped the official introduction of the program.
It was scheduled for the new school year.
First Nations groups and representatives of the province’s anglophone community were among the critics of the plan, which they said reflected a rigid, nationalist ideology and ignored contributions of non-francophones.
The Parti Québécois government created the program before it lost the 2014 election.
It is being piloted in a select few schools across the province and the project will continue as the Education Department looks to make changes to better reflect the contributions of the province’s cultural and linguistic communities.
