“There is no question for our government of tolerating circumvention of the Charter of the French language. We are ready to make legislative changes if the situation requires it, ”said Jean-François Roberge, Minister of Education, on Thursday.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
He was thus reacting to the forthcoming establishment of a 12-year school program – as in the other Canadian provinces – of a private English-speaking school which could thus prevent its students from going to CEGEP.
In a report broadcast earlier this week on Global News, Joan Salette, director of the Kuper Academy in Kirkland, west of Montreal, explained that she had received many messages supporting this approach, particularly in the wake of the promulgation of the An Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French (Bill 96).
Under this new law – much criticized by some Anglophones in Quebec – young Anglophones will have to take three French courses at CEGEP.
The program being created by Académie Kuper (an unsubsidized private school with tuition fees of more than $16,000 in high school) would allow its students to avoid going to CEGEP, where they will be subject to the new language requirements.
At the Ministry of Education, Bryan St-Louis, responsible for press relations, indicated that “it is illegal to promote this program as being a program recognized by the Government of Quebec”.
“These programs of 12e year are not authorized either by the Ministry of Education or by that of Higher Education. Thus, the quality of these programs is not regulated at all, and Quebec does not award any diploma for them,” continued Bryan St-Louis.
Kuper Academy did not call back The Press.
Not an isolated case
On its website, the establishment, which has existed since 1986, describes itself as “the largest private English-language secondary school in Quebec”.
She says she follows “the rules of the Ministries of Education and Higher Education” and has a permit from the Ministry of Education.
Tino Bordonaro, chair of the English Language Education Commission, told The Press that to his knowledge, at least six other private English schools had such programs in Quebec. Some of them go back several years and their tuition fees exceed $15,000.
Is there a loophole there that could be used by the English-speaking community? In any case, verification made with English-language school boards in Montreal, both English-Montreal and Lester-B.-Pearson indicate that they have no intention of implementing such courses spanning 12 years in their public schools.
The French private colleges Marie de France and Stanislas – modeled on the French school system – also offer a program allowing their students to go directly to university without going through CEGEP under long-standing agreements.