In the past several years, the government and the education community have devoted substantial resources to encouraging young people to stay in school, but there are still too many students who leave school without a diploma or other qualifications. The urgent need for action has been brought up several times in recent months, for example, at the Assises régionales sur la persévérance scolaire, an initiative of the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec, and by the Groupe d'action sur la persévérance et la réussite scolaires au Québec, led by L. Jacques Ménard, President of BMO Financial Group.
We must do everything possible to improve the graduation rate, first of all for the young people themselves, whose future depends directly on their education, and also for Québec, which needs its young people in order to meet the social, economic and cultural challenges facing it. Encouraged by the support that has been expressed by civil society, the government intends to pursue this objective.
