New Brunswick’s department of education can’t say how many children in the anglophone sector won’t be able to participate in the province’s new universal French second language program this September.
The province announced the new French language training program in mid-December, which will replace French immersion this fall for all incoming students in the anglophone system.
Children in kindergarten and Grade 1 will receive half of their instruction in English and half in French, with further opportunities to specialize or take higher-level French training in later years. The end goal is to ensure that all students graduate with a conversational level of French.
But schools in areas with limited capacity to institute or increase French language training will get a grace period to implement the program, meaning some students won’t be able to participate in the first few years. The department isn’t sure how many that could be.
“We will continue to work to provide flexibility for schools who would not be able to meet all criteria to roll out fully in the 2023-24 school year. This includes ongoing consultations which will be carried out throughout the month of January,” said Danielle Elliott, a spokesperson for the education department.
“As such, it would be pre-emptive to estimate how many schools may not fully implement next year at this time. Any schools that require flexibility in order to meet criteria will still be required to prepare a plan to reach 50-50 English and French learning for kindergarten and Grade 1 students within the next two years.”
Of the 142 schools teaching kindergarten and Grade 1 in the anglophone system, 83 (or about 60 per cent) offered French immersion this year. Elliott said the department expects some of the rest of the 40 per cent to be able to offer the program, but couldn’t say how many.
The fact that 40 per cent of anglophone schools had no access to French immersion was part of the province’s reasoning in moving ahead with the new program, with education minister Bill Hogan and premier Blaine Higgs saying that it is important to ensure that students in rural anglophone areas get access to French language training as well. But it’s those same rural areas that lack immersion programs that are expected to have the most trouble fulfilling the requirements of the new program.
That’s ringing alarm bells for Green education critic Megan Mitton.
“They’ve already said it’s not going to be rolled out in a consistent manner, they don’t really know what they’re going to do around staffing, who’s going to be able to learn what when,” she said.
“So it’s already a mess, they need to stop what they’re doing and go back to the drawing board.”
The goal of expanding access to French language learning to areas that don’t have it is a laudable one, according to Liberal leader Susan Holt, but she says the execution is flawed.
“The way that they’re doing it, by lowering the bar for everyone, by putting a one size fits no-one program in place, at a rushed pace, without the resources or the experts on board. It’s going to be a disaster,” she said.
Should she form government after the next scheduled election in 2024, Holt says she’d bring back the immersion program. She was less clear on what would happen to the new program, only saying that she would ensure that the system would be improved at a rate where the resources to do so are available.
“I would be looking to make the gradual changes that are informed by our capacity, our teachers and our experts, but that aim for that high bar for the best French education possible,” she said.
Education minister Bill Hogan was not made available for an interview.