The only thing hotter than classrooms earlier this week on the scorching last day of school for many Quebec students, was the blistering war of words between Education Minister Bernard Drainville and teachers’ unions.

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement and the Centrale des syndicats du Québec roasted the government over $570 million worth of cuts to education announced on the eve of the summer holidays. Both said they no longer have confidence in the minister.

Drainville for his part said on social media that he had “no lessons to receive” from unions who went on strike in late 2023, depriving 400,000 Quebec students of classes for 22 days over a seven-week period when the Christmas break was factored in.

It was certainly a departure from the usual end-of-the-school-year pleasantries.

But it’s a sign of the shock among school boards, services centres, administrators, teachers and support staff — not to mention parents and pundits — over the scale of the budget cuts they’ll be scrambling to implement before classes resume in a few fleeting weeks. People are using terms like “impossible,” “devastating,” “draconian,” “unreasonable,” and........

© Montreal Gazette