Quebec’s education minister has formalized a promise to ban prayer rooms and other religious practices in the province’s public schools.
Bernard Drainville issued a directive late Wednesday saying schools must ensure that none of their spaces are used “in fact and in appearance, for the purposes of religious practices such as open prayers or other similar practices.”
“Schools are places or learning and not places of worship,” Drainville wrote on his Twitter account, where he published a copy of his order.
No requests for accommodation will be heard, the government added.
The directive came after Drainville said earlier this month…
On Tuesday, Quebec’s education minister, Bernard Drainville, announced the launch of a “general” investigation into sexual misconduct in schools following multiple denunciations and allegations of sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior at the primary and secondary school level.
Drainville told the National Assembly he had asked officials to shed light on “any situation involving behavior that could reasonably cause students to fear for their physical or psychological safety, including citations brought to the Education Ministry’s attention.”
The minister was responding to a question from Québec Solidaire’s Ruba Ghazal about alleged sexual assaults of students at Massey-Vanier High School, in Cowansville.
The…
Afghanistan’s schools have reopened for the new academic year, but hundreds of thousands of teenage girls remain barred from attending classes as Taliban authorities ban their attendance at secondary schools.
Education Minister Habibullah Agha confirmed in a statement that schools up to grade six “will currently be open for girls”, effectively retaining a ban on high school for female students.
Madrassas, or Islamic schools, are the only education centers open for girls of all ages. Yalda, a ninth grader in Kabul, told Al Jazeera that the madrassa was good for enhancing her knowledge of religion.
But “the madrassa cannot help…
Former youth in care in BC of all ages will have their tuition waived for post-secondary education as the government takes action to remove age requirements for the Tuition Waiver Program.
In 2017, the BC government developed the Provincial Tuition Waiver Program that waived tuition and fees for former youth in care between 19 and 26. Effective Aug. 1, 2023, this expanded tuition waiver will be made available to all BC former youth in care at any age as part of StrongerBC’s Future Ready plan to make education and training more accessible and affordable.
“Our government wants to ensure that…