Hundreds of people attended a public consultation held in Moncton Thursday evening to discuss upcoming changes to French second-language education in the anglophone school system.
Attendee Christina Robichaud said the crowd jeered when Education Minister Bill Hogan spoke to them.
“Minister Hogan first stood up to introduce himself and unfortunately there were a few…immediate outbursts because people feel very passionate and because these are consultations that are done essentially what we feel after the decision’s been made,” she said in an interview on Friday.
“There’s a lot of emotions running.”
Robichaud attended the meeting because she has concerns about the future of French immersion as the mother of two daughters learning French at school.
One of her daughters attends Maplehurst Middle School, which is piloting a new alternative to the current French immersion system.
She told Global News in December that she has seen a noticeable decline in her daughter’s French skills since the program started.
Robichaud said so many people showed up to the event that some were turned away at the door, being told to come to future consultations that would be happening in other cities.
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Once talks were underway, Robichaud said attendees weren’t satisfied with the “world café” discussion format and started asking the minister questions.
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When they were told the event wouldn’t have a question and answer format, attendees took matters into their own hands and stepped up to the microphone to speak.
Green Party MLA Megan Mitton, who also attended Thursday night’s consultation, said in an interview that this continued for most of the evening.
“(The event) was supposed to start at 6:30 but because there wasn’t enough room, we started closer to 7:30 and then wrapped up around 10. And people were going up to the mic until that time to share their thoughts,” she said.
“It did start with a few presentations but after that it was community members speaking.”
Mitton said she didn’t recall hearing anyone who was in favour of the provincial government’s proposed changes to the program.
Robichaud agreed with that.
“There was not a soul that was in favour of the change. Not one,” she said.
In a statement sent to Global News on Friday, education minister Bill Hogan said he appreciated hearing the opinions shared on Thursday, especially from teachers.
“I really appreciated the teachers who got up and spoke because they’re living these realities every day, I’d like to see more teachers come out. We need open and honest discussion on our education system and how we can improve it,” the statement read.
While the statement read that feedback from the public would “guide (the Department of Education’s) decision making”, their goal “continues to be to rollout a program for this fall to ensure anglophone sector students graduate with a minimum of conversational French, starting with Kindergarten and Grade 1.”
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