Quebec is injecting $20 million to build more classrooms at two French-language schools in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) neighbourhood.
Quebec immigration minister Kathleen Weil explained the influx of immigrants and refugees means schools must make more space for thousands of new students.
“When they arrive, they need a period to adapt and learn the language,” she said.
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Tuesday’s announcement will lead to the creation of more than 20 new classrooms at School Saint-Luc and Sainte-Catherine-de-Sienne Elementary.
Sainte-Catherine-de-Sienne Elementary will get eight classrooms and School Saint-Luc’s Prud’homme Annex building will get five primary and 10 secondary classrooms.
Welcome classes for new arrivals will be held at the Prud’homme Annex.
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About a quarter to a third of the 50,000 immigrants that come to Quebec each year are under the age of 18.
Weil said she found many of the families are choosing to settle in NDG.
The new classrooms will serve both elementary and high school students so they can study in their own communities.
“They’ve just arrived in the country and we should be able to get them a classroom close to their home,” said Marie-José Mastromonaco, Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) commissioner for NDG-Westmount.
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The work at Sainte-Catherine-de-Sienne Elementary is expected to be completed by September 2019.
It should take three years for all the classrooms to be built at School Saint-Luc.
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