Quebec’s ‘Three-Speed’ School System Disproportionately Fails Boys, New Report Warns
On April 7, 2026, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the Solidarity MNA for Gouin, released a white paper arguing that Quebec’s segmented education system is driving a critical achievement gap between male and female students. The report, titled “Those we let slip: the impact of the three-speed school on boys’ success,” claims that the province’s current educational structure creates systemic barriers that hinder boys more than girls.
The “three-speed school” model refers to the division of students into three distinct tiers: those attending private institutions, those in special pedagogical programs (PPP) within public schools, and those in “regular” public classes. According to Nadeau-Dubois, this segregation is a primary driver of educational inequality.
The findings highlight a troubling trend, with Nadeau-Dubois stating that Quebec currently has the largest gap in high school graduation rates between boys and girls in all of Canada. This disparity is most evident in the public sector; while boys generally trail girls from kindergarten through university, the gap “explodes” within the regular classes of the public network.
The report suggests that boys are affected by this segregation in both direct and indirect ways. Indirectly, the lack of student mixing tends to harm struggling students more than high-achieving ones, and the data indicates a higher concentration of struggling boys than struggling girls. Directly, Nadeau-Dubois argues that boys are more sensitive to the overall composition of their classrooms, making their success more dependent on the learning conditions found in regular public classes.
The consequences of this systemic failure are reflected in several key metrics. The white paper points to lower scores on ministerial exams, higher dropout rates, and lower enrollment in higher education for boys—indicators that Nadeau-Dubois describes as “bright red” warning signs.
To address these inequities, the outgoing politician is calling for a fundamental overhaul of the provincial system. His recommendations include the total abolition of the “regular” stream in schools and the integration of subsidized private and public institutions into a single, unified school system.
The release of the report comes as Nadeau-Dubois prepares to leave politics. Speaking on April 7, 2026, the former student leader expressed concern that education might be overlooked in the upcoming election campaign, urging political parties to prioritize the issue. He noted that boys from disadvantaged families and those with learning difficulties are particularly overrepresented in the struggling “ordinary” classes of the public system.
This move underscores a growing debate over educational equity in Quebec, highlighting how the structural organization of classrooms can influence long-term academic outcomes based on gender and socioeconomic status.
