13 December 2018
The arts community deplores this year’s decrease in educational field trips from schools. Due to an agreement in principle reached in the class action suit dealing with illegal school fees, school boards have had to return significant amounts of money to parents.
Government grants
New budget regulations have been adopted to provide support for these field trips. Measure 15186 – Field Trips to Cultural Organizations – provides financial assistance to school boards to sustain these outings.
The Ministry will, in principle, reimburse school boards for part of the expenses they have to assume under agreements reached with the Ministry of Culture and Communications for the Culture in the Schools program.
Measures 15182, 15183 and 15184 of the Culture in the Schools program – the Cultural Workshops at School component – provide support for the creation of artists and writers workshops in a school, and medium to long-term school-based projects developed in collaboration with artists, writers and cultural organizations registered with the Répertoire de ressources culture-éducation. The goal of the program is to produce citizens who are actively involved in cultural life by increasing the number of cultural experiences offered to students.
Measure 15185 of the Culture in the Schools program – the Partnerships component – allows for the creation of artists and writers workshops in a school, and medium and long-term school-based projects developed in collaboration with artists, writers and cultural organizations registered with the Répertoire de ressources culture-éducation.
All these measures are listed under “Cultural activities.” Money not spent under a specific measure is transferable to others.
Field trip or not?
Unfortunately, fun field trips are excluded from these budget measures, and cost-sharing with parents is problematic. We hear a lot of complaints from people having to stretch their imaginations to make pedagogical days attractive, and who miss the field trips that allowed them to leave the school and experience activities in different environments
Also, when you offer students the choice to stay in the school, instead of going out, you end up managing both the outing and activities for those who remain behind. These are heartbreaking choices that have to be made. We know that disadvantaged communities are suffering on this count.
Martin Cayouette, FPSS-CSQ Communications Advisor