This text is part of the special book Francization
Demographic projections provide all sorts of information that is very useful to school service centers in anticipating the number of students ready to begin their school career. While some regions have to come to terms with “baby booms”, others face the perils of devitalization, various realities that decision-makers see dawning on the horizon.
It is different with international crises. Who could have predicted two months ago that Ukraine would be on fire today, or that Afghanistan would once again plunge into horror after the withdrawal of the American army in August 2021? Each time, these tragedies cause significant migratory flows, and they are felt even in our schools.
The unpredictable nature of these events represents a first major challenge for schools which welcome uprooted children, who know little or no French, traumatized by armed conflicts or an unleashed nature, some having little or no schooling at the time of leaving their native country. Welcoming them and supervising them in an adequate manner constitutes a whole challenge, essential to their integration. This mission of the public school, Nathalie Morel, vice-president for professional life of the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), considers it a priority.
“The set of services offered at preschool, elementary and secondary school, known by the acronym SASAF (Services d’accueil et de soutien à l’apprentissage du français), all students are entitled to, and it is clearly indicated in section 1 of the Education Act, insists this teacher who is celebrating 35 years of career. This is an essential service. We can talk about the francization of adults, but if the education system does not welcome students who do not master French, we are all missing the boat. »
For Nathalie Morel, it is as much a pedagogical issue (“Mastery of French is important to fully understand the other subjects”) as a social issue (“Children who arrive too quickly in ordinary class sometimes have serious shortcomings that the teachers have clearly hard to fill”).
It is also a challenge for the school service centres, supported by the Ministry of Education for the creation of these reception classes. But according to the vice-president, on the whole of the Quebec territory, “the services are of variable geometry”. They have also been under the magnifying glass of the FAE since 2016, an analysis work carried out with the support of their nine affiliated unions and their teacher members present in seven regions of Quebec. Number of students sometimes insufficient to form a reception class, lack of teaching staff and other professionals, too modest funding: the obstacles are not lacking.
The role of reception classes
According to the teacher, we must first demystify the role of the reception class for young refugees, who are too often assimilated to a specialized class. It is essentially a temporary passage (which can last up to two years) for a smooth arrival in a caring environment, because the other students in the group already know a lot about the pain of uprooting and the demands of life. adaptation to a society radically different from the one they left.
“We talk a lot about diversity, but there is a huge one within this clientele. Some already have a good knowledge of French, others have great language difficulties, not to mention those who, at the age of 12, 13 or 14, have hardly ever gone to school. Moreover, for this very particular group, several teachers complain of not having any educational material: stories for children and the Calinours, that is not appropriate! »
The pandemic context is also not very favorable to learning French, nor to gradual integration into a living environment where you have everything to know and understand. At the height of the various confinements, visits to the municipal library and social activities were reduced to the strict minimum, if not non-existent, making the educational dynamic laborious.
“Learning a new language by Zoom, for children, is far from easy,” laments Nathalie Morel. Not to mention that other phenomena are weakening francization, such as urban sprawl which is scattering resources and the need for better coordination between school service centres, the Department of Education and the Department of Immigration, in order to to better understand the needs of children and their parents.
“These families come from all over the world, and speak several different languages. We need to translate certain documents into all these languages, have interpreters to better communicate with parents, and rely on the presence of French as a second language teachers, who are in the best position to properly assess students’ language skills. »
In the current context, between the sixth wave and the shortage of labour, some will say that it is too much to ask. Not Nathalie Morel. “When you invest in learning the French language, and especially in reading and writing, all these students have a much better chance [de réussir]. »