It is now official, documented and quantified: the English-language education system in Quebec fails to equip more than a third of its students for the French-speaking labor market.
In other words, obtaining a diploma from an English-speaking institution condemns at least one in three young Anglophones to: 1) only work in a company where English dominates; 2) impose the English language on his co-workers; 3) go to Toronto, Calgary or New York to earn a living.
The problem is so serious, says the president of the Fédération des cégeps, Bernard Tremblay, that if English-speaking Cégep students were forced to take three of their normal courses in French, “there are thousands of students who [seraient] unable to graduate. We would be close, he told the Homeworkthe “social crisis”.
According to him, the inability of young Anglophones, although educated in Quebec and living in an 80% French-speaking nation, to speak French is such that it causes average failure rates among 35% of them.
The slaughter would reach 57% among those who intend to be nurses, therefore having the obligation to serve patients in French, and 86% among those who intend to educate children, many of whom will work in daycare centers where, according to the latest news, there are also young Francophones.
Mr. Tremblay does not say that these students would struggle to take the three courses (which will be added to the two French courses already provided for in the program). He does not say that their grades would suffer from having to study in a second language. He says they would fail. It is therefore that they will also fail in the labor market. That they will be unable to understand the sharp presentation of the corporate executive on a new project to be carried out. Unable to read a technical note, let alone write it.
Note that this is the cream of the students. Only the best high school graduates are admitted to CEGEP. This is even more true in English CEGEPs, where the selection is much stronger. In short, the third of the best are zero in French.
Willful blindness
These data contrast with the claim of the Quebec English School Boards Association (ACSAQ), whose president, Dan Lamoureux, said this to the National Assembly last September: “We ensure the success in French of all our students and prepare them to live and work with pride in Quebec. »
The reality is that Anglophone institutions, the Quebec Ministry of Education and our successive governments, PQ and Liberal, have been practicing willful blindness on this issue for a long time.
Already in 2009, a consultation carried out among young Anglophones by the Quebec Community Groups Network reported that the average of the young participants felt that they were “competent” in spoken French and that they could write “a little” French. In other words, most could communicate well in French, “but not enough to work professionally or pursue higher education in French.”
It is written: not enough to work! Over the years, the Commission de l’éducation en langue anglaise, which advises the Government of Quebec, has regularly sounded the alarm, sometimes proposing to increase from two to four the compulsory French courses in English-speaking CEGEPs, sometimes create summer work placements in French to give a much-needed boost to future graduates. The last census, that of 2016, also informed us that, on the island of Montreal, 24% of Anglos aged 25 to 44 admitted not even speaking French. How, under these conditions, can they even work in a McDo? (Note: only 20% of Franco Montrealers of the same age say they do not speak English.)
Last month was published the report of a round table on the employment of Anglos in Quebec, report funded by the Quebec government. He indicates that, from now on, the median income of Anglo-Quebecers is 10% lower than that of Francophones, including in the metropolis. A historic reversal. The cause of this discrepancy? “English-speaking Quebecers face adjustment difficulties in the transition to a French-speaking workplace. »
More specifically: “the expectation that workers acquire the necessary skills in French before being able to enter the labor market in Quebec is a key factor in the current gaps in unemployment”.
In other words, by failing to provide our young Anglophones with real language skills during their studies, we condemn them to hitting a wall when they arrive at work.
The brightest will take a train or plane ticket for the rest of America or launch a start-up where only English will be spoken, as we find more and more in Montreal.
Take the bull by the horns
Faced with this observation that we can no longer deny, the Fédération des cégeps has found the solution: above all, do not demand courses in French for CEGEP students! Maintaining, therefore, the linguistic failure machine.
For ten years now, I have been campaigning for us to take the bull by the horns. Let’s make CEGEP the point of passage that ensures Anglophones (and allophones) real operational skills in French. That, over a two-year cycle, a quarter of the first session be devoted to improving French, that a third of the second be in French, like half of the third. Then that all the students go to do their fourth semester in immersion in a French-speaking CEGEP.
That students from English-speaking universities then be required to maintain their proficiency in French during their studies and that passing a French exam be a requirement for graduation. I have no doubt that a majority of Anglo-Quebec parents would be delighted, those who wish the success of their children and who want to see them put down roots in Quebec.
Utopia? Talk to master’s students in history, philosophy or sociology at the very French-speaking Université Laval, who cannot graduate without demonstrating advanced knowledge of English. The practice is common on this side of the two solitudes.
If we believe that young Anglophones are full-fledged Quebecers who deserve a real chance to succeed in Quebec and contribute to our common future, we must adopt this kind of solution. If we don’t care, let’s keep pretending that everything is fine.
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Blog: jflisee.org