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Consult the book: Beyond the Numbers, A Matter of the Heart 

MONTREAL, April 27, 2009 – In a speech today before the Canadian Club of Montreal, L. Jacques Ménard, President of BMO Financial Group, Quebec, noted that more than 41 per cent of students who had enrolled in Secondary I in 2002 still hadn’t obtained a diploma in 2007, the end of the normal five-year period for completing secondary school in Quebec. “This is not only an economic disaster for the province but also a human tragedy for each dropout,” said Mr. Ménard,

Mr. Ménard spoke during the launch of his new book, Beyond the Numbers, a Matter of the Heart. “I wrote this book to enable all Quebecers to appreciate the scale of the human tragedy that dropouts experience,” he explained. “To be a dropout means hearing ‘no’ more often when you’re looking for a job. It means knowing that you’re forcing your family to bear the consequences of your limitations. It means having less money to live on. It means having a shorter-than-average life expectancy and often poorer health. It means having fewer resources of any type for living freely. In short, being a dropout makes it very hard to keep pace with a society that’s changing fast.”

Mr. Ménard, who chaired the Groupe d’action sur la persévérance et la réussite scolaires, an action group on student retention and success, noted that the lifetime earnings of a high school dropout are $439,000 less, on average, than those of a graduate. “Each cohort of dropouts costs government nearly $2 billion in lower tax revenues and higher costs, and that doesn’t take into account the thousands of positions that remain vacant due to the shortage of qualified workers to fill them,” he added.

Mr. Menard unveiled a series of actions currently underway to reduce the dropout rate, including:

• A major campaign put together by various media to support young people and encourage them to stay in school through graduation. Several stars admired by teens have agreed to volunteer their time and take part in this high-profile operation slated to hit the airwaves this summer.
• Chambers of commerce and other business organizations have signed agreements with schools to guide young people toward trades and vocations in line with their interests.
• Young adults are setting up networks to visit youth in Quebec’s schools and speak about the exciting careers awaiting them in the job market.
• A major Web-based campaign to mobilize thousands of volunteers throughout Quebec will be launched this fall.

“A veritable tsunami against dropping out has been unleashed in Quebec, and if Ontario was able to raise its graduation rate from 68 per cent to 77 per cent over the last five years, I don’t see why we won’t succeed in supporting our young people so that by 2020 at least 80 per cent of them will celebrate their 20th birthday with a high school diploma in hand,” added Mr. Ménard.

The book Beyond the Numbers, a Matter of the Heart is offered free to everyone who wants to help in the fight against dropping out. It is available at all BMO Bank of Montreal branches in Quebec and can also be downloaded from the blog www.sionsymettait.com.

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