Graduation rate steadily increasing in Quebec

QUÉBEC CITY, February 15, 2018 – The proportion of students under 20 who earn a first diploma or qualification is increasing steadily in Quebec. This rate is now 80.1% when you add the 76% high school diploma rate and the 4.1% qualification rate together. This progress can mostly be attributed to the increase in the number of secondary school and vocational training diplomas.

As part of the Hooked on School Days, Sébastien Proulx, Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports and Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region made the 2017 edition of the Rapport sur la diplomation et la qualification par commission scolaire au secondaire public.

Quote:

The new graduation rates made public today demonstrate that, by collaborating and working together, we will promote students’ success. Despite the remaining challenges, I am convinced that, by meeting their needs and continuing to encourage them to keep going, we will empower them to develop their full potential.

– Sébastien Proulx, Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports and Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region

Key facts from the report:

More graduates

• For the last four cohorts, after seven years, the qualification rate has been identical, while the high school graduation rate per cohort continued to increase, going from 71.7% to 76%, a progression of 4.3 percentage points. This increase is almost entirely attributable to the fact that more students are getting their secondary school diplomas (see graphic 2 in appendix 3). The 2010 and 2011 cohorts’ rates, after six and five years respectively, indicate that this trend will continue.
• The first objective of the Policy on Educational Success: by 2030, increase the number of students under age 20 who receive their first diploma or qualification to 90% and the number of students with a first diploma (SSD and DVS) to 85%.

A smaller gap between different groups of students

• Though there is still a gap between girls and boys, favouring girls, it is decreasing. After seven years, this gap went from 10.1 to 8.6 percentage points between the 2008 cohort and the 2009 cohort.
• For the 2009 cohort, in the public system, regular students had a rate of 83.8% compared to 51.8% for HSMLD students. The gap between these two groups is still large, but tended to decrease between the 2004 and 2009 cohorts, the rate going from 43.8 to 32 percentage points after seven years.
• The Policy on Educational Success’s second objective: by 2030, reduce the gaps between different groups of students by half.

Acceleration of these trends in the next few years

• The implementation of the Policy on Educational Success will speed up these trends over the next few years, particularly because it will act on essential principles for success.
• The Hooked on School Days are taking place from February 12 to 16, 2018, with the theme “Your actions, a + in their success.” This theme aims to depict the multitude of actions everyone can take to promote staying in school and excelling in education, from childhood to adulthood.

Related links:

• Rapport sur la diplomation et la qualification par commission scolaire au secondaire, édition 2017