The provincial education minister’s announcement that changes may be coming to the French Immersion program is getting a mixed reaction from the chair of the Anglophone South District Education Council.
Rob Fowler says clearly the current system doesn’t seem to be working as well as it should but he cautions against a massive overhaul.
“A lot of the difficulty is that at the high school level there are not as many french programs offered beyond grade 10 so kids tend to switch back to English, plus they are trying to get their marks up for university, so by the time they are tested in Grade 12 the results aren’t that great”, stated Fowler.
A lack of fully bilingual students creates a real problem for those who might want to apply for a job that requires it and Fowler thinks he has a solution.
“In my mind, I’d like to see people be able to get a job in a second language but we don’t offer that level of training in the school system right now so kids who want that are going to have to go elsewhere to get that kind of level of proficiency that they can get a job in a second language,” said Fowler.
Minister Dominic Cardy announced recently that the government is looking to implement some form of a pilot program for French Immersion at a small number of schools.
