Between viruses and strikes, Quebec children have too often been deprived of education, denounces Dr. Gilles Julien. This has major consequences for their health, maintains the pediatrician, who is calling for school to be recognized as an essential service.
Children entering first grade in September 2019 are nearing the end of their primary education, having experienced virtually no standard school year. Health measures have forced school closures, natural disasters have led to more classless days, and now the public sector labor dispute is depriving children of learning. According to Dr. Gilles Julien, whose foundation developed the social pediatrics approach throughout Quebec, children should never be deprived of school.
“We don’t have essential education services, and that’s a catastrophe for children,” he pleads, referring to the serious consequences for their development. He stresses that childhood is the period of life when we learn at fast speed, and we need to make the most of it.
The doctor who treats some of society’s most vulnerable children explains that the health and economic context has only made his young patients more fragile.
“Children were beginning to recover a little from the pandemic and from not going to school, and now, all of a sudden, they’re put back on educational leave,” he denounces in an interview with The Canadian Press.
According to Dr. Julien, closing classes sends a very bad signal to young people. They may feel that they are not important, or that education has no value, because school can be put on pause at any time without any problem.
“The consequences are dramatic,” he insists. In the first three years of the pandemic, the pediatrician saw learning disabilities worsen and behavioral problems multiply.
Dr. Julien explains that the upheavals in a toddler’s environment create “toxic stresses” which, in turn, provoke enormous anxiety.
In an opinion piece published this week in Le Devoir, the child advocate cites the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity. He insists that this must become a “fundamental value” of our society.
Dr. Julien gives the example of children with developmental, learning or psycho-emotional difficulties. These children suffer more from school closures.
“Delays only get worse, disorders become more complex and anxiety becomes chronic and toxic,” he writes, blaming “the carelessness of decision-makers”.
While he considers the teachers’ strike to be “well justified”, the social pediatrician nevertheless calls for serious reflection on adding school to the list of essential services. He fears it will demotivate children and have long-term consequences that could ultimately lead to avoidable dropouts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 12, 2023.
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