The Quebec Fédération of CEGEPs is sounding an alarm about the increasing number of students who are choosing to drop out of the province's colleges.
The organization's president, Bernard Tremblay, says a comprehensive strategy needs to be developed and he calls on provincial politicians to take urgent action to halt Quebec's rising student dropout rate.
Currently, only 63% of students are completing their CEGEP education and that number has been steadily shrinking for years.
Speaking with CJAD 800, Tremblay said one of the challenges is that Quebec's political parties are talking about 'education,' but not 'higher education."
The statistics are particularly troubling when it comes to the success rates of students with special needs, aboriginal students and for boys. Only 56% of francophone boys are managing to graduate, compared to 67% for girls.
Tremblay noted that there has always been a significant difference between the graduation success rates between boys and girls, as well as between Anglophone and Francophone students.
"We find that difference between boys and girls here in Quebec, but we don't find it in the rest of Canada," Tremblay said in French.
"There is something specific here that needs to be analyzed in more depth. It's going to require research and then action to adress the findings."
So, are anglophones just smarter than francophones?
"No, it's not necessarily that," chuckled Tremblay. "It's related to a difference in how education is valued. It's the same for immigrants coming to Quebec - they value education more than francophone Quebecers."
Tremblay says it's important to recognize and accept this and then move forward in figuring out what to do next.
Part of the problem has been the provincial data on graduation rates that is available to the Fédération des CEGEPS.
It's compiled by the Quebec government and until now, the data that the Fédé had to work with was from a cohort of students, who entered CEGEP in 2009, despite repeated requests for an update.
Tremblay says politicians are only reacting to public opnion and that he's starting to develop "an alergic reaction" to people who suggest that education in Quebec is "a priority."
Tremblay says "the reality is that it is not."
"We are mostly concentrating on primary and high schools, which is not a bad thing," added Tremblay.
"But, we have to see the education system as a whole."
The Fédération des CEGEPs is advocating an education strategy that looks at everything from early childhood right through to CEGEP and universities; it has even launched a petition to support its efforts.