(Fredericton) The New Brunswick government will ultimately not move forward with its French immersion reform planned for this fall following widespread criticism of the plan to reduce French teaching .
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs proposed reducing the hours that kindergarten and elementary students in the English system spend learning French – from about 90% of the day in French immersion to 50%.
Education Minister Bill Hogan announced in a statement Friday that the plan is canceled after hearing from nearly 13,000 New Brunswickers who participated in consultation sessions over the past month.
A group of New Brunswick parents say the government’s decision to abandon the controversial reform is a major victory for the province.
Chris Collins, executive director of Canadian Parents for French New Brunswick, said in an interview that the reversal was “spectacular” and had to be done.
“This is great news for French immersion, it’s great news for French as a second language training, and it’s great news for bilingualism in Canada’s only officially bilingual province,” he said. he adds.
Hogan said the province would establish a group representing provincial teachers’ associations, education system experts and parents to agree on next steps. He did not confirm when those steps would be made public.
“To be honest, I really thought the framework we announced was a great idea. I still think so. And in some cases, it could work very well, the minister told reporters. However, what we discovered was that it was not in the best interests of all of our children.”
Hogan said that in light of the change, French immersion enrollment will be reopened for first-graders.
He says that despite this setback, he still feels the existing French immersion program does not meet standards, adding that the province’s goal remains to ensure that all high school graduates are equipped with conversational French.
“The system, in its current form, is leaving large numbers of students behind, and we are committed to addressing the issues that cause this,” the minister said in a statement. This is not the end, but the beginning of what will be a positive and lasting change”.
Chris Collins agrees the education system needs work and hopes these next steps will address low achievement in math, science and literacy, in addition to ensuring students have a strong French curriculum.
“There is now an opportunity for us to improve the whole system and improve the quality of graduates we produce. This will lead to a much better province from an economic perspective, in addition to the future contributions of these students to our province,” he stressed.
Mr Collins said he was grateful for the thousands of parents and teachers who had made their voices heard and praised the government for listening to their concerns.
“It’s an exciting day, I’m overjoyed,” he said.
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.