Its territory consists of 14 of Montreal's 19 boroughs[a] as well as the municipalities of Côte-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montréal-Est, Montréal-Ouest, Mont-Royal and Westmount.

School boards in Quebec had been organized along religious confessional lines, Catholic and Protestant, since before Canadian Confederation.

The amendment was passed by both the House of Commons and the Senate, notwithstanding the unresolved constitutional debate between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

But the harmonization of the previous boards' administrative policies and the debate over school closings due to declining enrollment have been especially inflammatory.

In 2005, both the Montreal Gazette and the French-language tabloid Le Journal de Montréal printed a special series of articles denouncing alleged nepotism and graft in the province's public school boards.

Some teachers complained the international students did not have the necessary language skills to participate in the classroom and as a result the overall quality of education was diminished.

[12][13][14] In 2019, the EMSB was placed under partial trusteeship under investigation for alleged mismanagement and ethical violations, after a preliminary report revealed a mishandling of "millions of dollars".