Underprivileged areas
Contributing to equality of opportunity for students from underprivileged areas
For over 50 years, the CGTSIM has promoted equality of opportunity for students from underprivileged areas. Through careful management of school taxes, it provides annual allocations to the school service centres (SSCs) and school boards (SBs) on the Island of Montréal for educational catch-up in these areas. These funds enable them to implement concrete measures that promote equality of opportunity and thereby support the school success of students from underprivileged areas.
In 2024-2025, the CGTSIM is proud to have allocated a total of $13.5 million to the SSCs and SBs on the Island of Montréal to support underprivileged areas. The 2024-2025 allocation was as follows:
This is a pie chart showing the distribution of $13.5 million allocated by the CGTSIM in 2024-2025 to the school service centres and school boards on the Island of Montréal, to support measures that promote school success for students from underprivileged areas. The chart is divided into five segments:
- Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM): $6,082,653;
- Centre de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île (CSSPI): $4,032,978;
- Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (CSSMB): $2,533,303;
- English Montreal School Board (EMSB): $583,733;
- Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB): $267,333.
The total allocated funds amount to $13,500,000.
Before allocating the funds, the CGTSIM complies with the allocation distribution terms (available in French only), as established in the distribution rules (available in French only).
Map of deprivation on the Island of Montréal
To ensure an equitable distribution of allocations, the CGTSIM relies on the Map of deprivation on the Island of Montréal. This map helps:
- Assess the correlation between the various sociocultural, sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the areas covered and the academic success of youth;
- Identify the location of underprivileged areas where school success rates are lower;
- Direct monetary allocations to the most vulnerable areas.
The most recent edition of the map, published in 2025, is based on data from the Ministère de l’Éducation and Statistics Canada from the 2021 Census of Population.
School classification
The map of deprivation serves as the basis for the Classification of elementary and secondary schools based on school success index (available in French only), which is produced annually by the CGTSIM.
The school success index is calculated based on the students’ place of residence, using enrollment data from the current school year.