SASKATOON – Saskatchewan’s population boom shows no sign of slowing down.
Fuelling the explosion is the influx of people, particularly immigrants, changing the face of Saskatoon.
Officials within the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School system are very aware of the influx and are now having to rethink some programming to accommodate the growing demand for education.
Janet Carmona-Figueroa moved to Saskatoon from Chile in 1980 with her family. She was eight at the time and didn’t speak English.
After having a teacher help her understand and learn the language, Carmona-Figueroa is now the one making immigrant students feel right at home.
She teaches English as a second language at Bishop James Mahoney High School.
“This is the calling in life for me. Now coming to Canada and not knowing a single word of English and now being able to teach English to new comers, immigrants from all over the world is a blessing,” said Carmona-Figueroa.
In 2007, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division had 276 students in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) program, now that number is 1,400.
“So it’s not that there’s just a few anymore in the building. We have them in all our schools and that is something to be celebrated, that kind of diversity but it also calls on us to make sure we’re responding in the best way that we can,” said Diane Cote, superintendent at Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.
Now the school division is re-evaluating the program, holding a Building Connections for Newcomer Success Summit, to develop ideas on how to make the EAL program better for students.
A recent Saskatoon Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) population projection reported the city could hit nearly 400,000 within 20 years, and immigration is expected to play a large part.
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