They are eligible for school in English, but choose instruction in French: almost a quarter of students who have the right to attend an English-speaking school do not go there, a phenomenon particularly marked in the Laurentians and Lanaudière, a revealed Tuesday Statistics Canada.
For the first time in 2021, census questions focused on eligibility for instruction in the minority language, i.e. English in Quebec and French in the rest of Canada.
We already knew that a quarter of eligible Quebec children had not been educated in English, but on Tuesday, Statistics Canada revealed data which allows us to see how this attendance varies from one region to another in Quebec.
Attendance is highest on the island of Montreal. Nearly four out of five eligible children were educated in English.
Étienne Lemyre, senior analyst at Statistics Canada and author of the study
On the North Shore and in the National Capital, 74% of school-age children eligible for school in English attended it. This proportion is 60% in Bas-Saint-Laurent.
“It varies a lot from one municipality to another within the same region,” adds Étienne Lemyre.
English-speaking father, French-speaking mother
As her husband is an anglophone from Winnipeg, Nadine Guertin could have sent her two boys to an English school. The family who lives in Lachine, however, chose the French-speaking school after “a lot of discussions.” As daily life at home takes place mainly in English, Mme Guertin was “afraid that their French was not strong enough”.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Nadine Guertin
Entry into French-speaking school was sometimes difficult for her two sons, says the mother, especially when her children were in kindergarten and 1D year and that they had difficulties in French. “They have been in good hands, but it has been hard to make the transition. They were reprimanded if they spoke in English,” remembers Nadine Guertin.
Her two boys are now in 4e and in 6e year. The oldest in the family, who had the choice, decided that he would continue his secondary school education in French next year.
South West Regions
It is in the regions of Outaouais, Laurentides and Lanaudière that we find the most children who are eligible for school in English, but do not attend it. “If we look at the children eligible for English education who have not taken advantage of it, a quarter live in these regions,” says analyst Étienne Lemyre.
In the Laurentians, for example, where just over 13,000 children are eligible for school in English, only 66% have made this choice.
The Sir Wilfrid Laurier English School Board, however, says that its schools are overflowing, so much so that a new primary school with 16 classes will open its doors in Saint-Lin–Laurentides at the start of the 2024 school year.
“We are not in decline,” says Maxeen Jolin, communications coordinator for the school board.
In the school board’s territory, nine out of ten students are transported to their school by bus. “Every parent has their reasons for sending children to school in English or not, but often our schools are not in their neighborhood,” says M.me Jolin. These are issues that we have in the English-speaking sector, we have a very large territory. »
Motivations that vary
Statistics Canada intends to ask Quebec parents the reasons behind their decision to send their children to an English school as part of another analysis to be released later this year, but already hypotheses can be made.
“We did an analysis in the Maritimes and the proximity of schools is a very important factor. There were children who lived within 2 kilometers of English and French schools, but if the English school was closer to their home, they were more likely to have gone to school in English,” says Mr. Lemyre.
The availability of programs in schools and the language spoken at home can also be factors that influence the choice of a school.
Who is eligible for school in English?
In Quebec, children can attend an English-speaking school when they have at least one parent who attended an English-language elementary school in Canada, or when the child himself or a sibling attended an elementary school or English-language secondary education in Canada.