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Since 1946...

Over the years, the body responsible for distance education at the secondary level has had a number of different names. At its inception in 1946, it was called Office des cours par correspondance, which was followed by Service then Direction des cours par correspondance. In 1989, the Conseil du trésor created the Fonds de la formation à distance, a designation that was replaced in recent years by the Direction générale de la formation à distance (DGFD). These name changes have often been accompanied by changes in orientation. From its initial emphasis on vocational education, distance education at the secondary level extended the scope of its activities to general education in 1972 and to popular education in the 1980s, before finally putting the emphasis back on education leading to a diploma, particularly general education, at the beginning of the 1990s. Throughout these changes, one characteristic remained a constant, namely that distance education continued to be an administrative unit within the ministère de l'Éducation, and had as its mandate to develop learning materials and offer services to its clients.

Redefining the role of distance education in 1993-1994

In November 1993, in the spirit of the Opération de réalignement de l'administration publique québécoise, the Ministère announced its intention to return all teaching functions, particularly that of distance education, to the school board system. A coordinating committee was set up to allow the Ministère and the school boards to redefine the base of operations of distance education. One year later the parties agreed to establish a bipartite organization based on the complementarity between certain school boards that would offer services directly to the population, and a central body concerned with planning, implementation, and research and development in distance education. This body, to be located outside the Ministère, would be administered by the school boards.

1995: The beginning of a new era

In December 1994, the DGFD stopped enrolling students. In January 1995, some fifty school boards, a number of which joined together to form consortia, took over the DGFD's functions and began offering services such as welcome, information, registration, counselling and certification of studies, to distance education clientele. Some school boards offer distance education courses only in general education, while others offer it along with vocational education and manpower training. During this same period, the DGFD published the first issue of La Feuille volante, an information bulletin intended for participating school boards. Thus the bipartite organization announced previously began to take shape.

The birth of SOFAD

In April 1995, the general assembly of school boards interested in distance education elected the board of directors. Subsequently, a name was chosen for the new central body, which became Société de formation à distance des commissions scolaires du Québec (SOFAD).

On November 1, 1995, Marjorie D. Gawley was named Director General of the SOFAD. On April 1, 1996, the DGFD ceased its activities and, by decree, the ministère de l'Éducation turned over its responsibility to SOFAD. This change was marked by the move of SOFAD into its new quarters at 2200 Sainte-Catherine Street East in Montréal. Since April, 1998, M. Pierre Giguère is the DG of SOFAD.