The resulting report, the Parent Report, published between 1963-66 in 5 volumes, consisted of nearly 1500 pages, and proposed some 500 recommendations[1] that led to following major reforms of the then church-dominated education system: The Parent Commission, as a product of the Quiet Revolution, helped to create one public, unified, comprehensive, democratic, education system accessible to everyone at all levels, which in turn helped to reduce disparities between men and women, urban and rural, English and French populations.
[3] It was a series of measures aiming at overcoming century-old elitism and at promoting universal accessibility to all levels of education through a reformed network of institutions and the establishment of financial assistance programs.
In the early 1960s, changes were also in the mind of practitioners of Catholic faith, which were brought out by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) that aimed at integrating modern human experience with church principles.
During the course of several years, the Commissioners received 349 memoirs, interviewed 125 educators, visited some 50 schools in Quebec, Canada, United States, and Europe.
The archaic education system controlled by the Church was made so that only a small minority of elites (mostly male) could afford to complete the 8 years training in classical colleges with a dropout rate of 70%.
Lesage government needed to spend an year negotiating with both Catholics and Protestants for them to finally agree to the creation of this ministry, under the responsibility of Paul Gérin-Lajoie, the first Minister of Education.
[6] The second issue the Commissioners noticed was that at secondary level, several types of institutions co-existed in parallel: studies at classical colleges led up to university; training at normal schools paved way for a career in teaching; plus liberal arts colleges and other vocational schools and technical institutes under the authority of several ministries that provided training of uneven quality and incompatible diplomas.
After a state-controlled education system that values the mass population was in place, to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to benefit from it, the Report proposes extending the tuition-free policy from primary school to university in the long run.
Addressing the deep-rooted inequalities in our society, the Commission wanted to ensure that the economic obstacles to access to higher education are reduced to a minimum.
[2] The educational reform advocated by the Parent Report also carries out an unexpected outcome: the founding of University of Quebec network, which was not implemented according to the initial proposals of the Commission.
After the establishment of CEGEPs, an increasing number of students chose to pursue undergraduate studies, adding pressure on Quebec's existing 6 universities in urban areas.