The following is via the Montreal Gazette:
The provincial government says it has come to an agreement with a local Hasidic school that will allow about 150 boys to receive secular instruction at home while continuing to attend the school for religious lessons.
Administrators at the Yeshiva Toras Moshe Academy, located in Outremont, have agreed to work in tandem with the ministry of education and the English Montreal School Board to provide students with the minimum education requirements set out in Quebec law. The out-of-court settlement is designed to prevent further legal wrangling over the academy’s largely religious curriculum.
The elementary school, which caters only to boys and has been operating for more than six decades, does not hold a license from the ministry of education and is therefore illegal. The government previously tried to shut it down in 2010 because the teachers were not properly accredited and devoted only six hours of instruction a week to secular subjects.
Under the new agreement, announced on Tuesday, the academy has reportedly agreed not to attempt to seek a license from the province. The boys will receive some math and English lessons at Yeshiva Toras Moshe, but the majority of their secular instruction will be done at home by their parents.
That came as a surprise to the EMSB, which will be responsible for meeting with the parents at least twice a year, overseeing the home-school curricula and administering exams. Newly re-elected EMSB chairperson Angela Mancini said the board will do everything possible to accommodate the new students, but the sudden influx of 150 home-schooled children into the system could prove challenging.
“I would venture to say that we’re going to probably need to add resources into our home-schooling department because obviously these are not the kind of numbers that we usually have,” Mancini said. “We certainly gave out information about home-schooling to the community, but that’s as far as we went … I assume they’ll either be asking for home-schooling or registering in one of our schools.”
Last April, Education Minister Yves Bolduc promised that the department would crack down on illegal Hasidic schools in Quebec, halting all government subsidies of those institutions. Yeshiva Toras Moshe does not receive any provincial funding.
(Source: Montreal Gazette)
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7 Responses
Wow. This may be the most important thing to happen to Jewish education in years. The combination of government supported “home schooling” along with a very traditional Torah “in school” is something we should all be considering. It offers parents a cheap way of getting a secular education without disrupting Torah studies. Parents who want a high level secular education, along with high level Torah, can do so. And this is being endorsed by the most traditional of Torah schools, and by a government that does not have a reputation of being “home school friendly.”
That is the only way to go “SATMAR”. They have “si’yato dishma’yo” in every thing they do.
#1
agree
this should be copied all over
Wait till next year when they realize this was just a stall tactic and the kids don’t learn anything at home.
“It offers parents a cheap way of getting a secular education without disrupting Torah studies. ”
A better and even less expensive way is what other Jewish schools — many of them charedi — in the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia do: Accept government funding for the secular studies component.
We whine and moan about not having access to government funds here in the US, but in Canada, where it is available, we turn it down. STOO-PID.
And will the students be required to take exams? Will they graduate with a high school diploma or its equivalency?
It’s actually smart of Satmar to not accept money for education for if they do they must teach stuff against their beliefs. Same holds true everywhere. Whoever controls the purse stings has the final say.
Even here in NYC our yeshivas are finding it difficult to meet the UPK guidelines.
And the article specifically mentions exams “That came as a surprise to the EMSB, which will be responsible for meeting with the parents at least twice a year, overseeing the home-school curricula and administering exams.”
I’d assume if one passes the exams a diploma is par for the course.