Minister receives report on French language education

New Brunswick's review of French as a second language education will be released to the public within two weeks, says the province's education minister.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock received the commissioned report on Monday.

Lamrock said it will be a "fairly tight turnaround" to release the findings to the public.

"I've asked them to do it in a week or two in order that it doesn't linger any more than it needs to," he said. "So we can have it in the hands of New Brunswickers and so we can start talking about the recommendations and options."

The province appointed two commissioners to chair the study in July 2007 after results from a 2005 assessment showed the regular French curriculum and immersion French were not producing fluent French speakers.

The review has been looking at how French is taught in New Brunswick schools.

Neither the French immersion program nor the core French program offered in English schools are reaching their goals, Lamrock said.

Previous studies have shown that approximately 75 per cent of immersion students in New Brunswick drop out, while 99.6 per cent of core French students never hit the government's proficiency requirement.

Core French is a non-immersion program that makes learning the language a mandatory subject for students in Grade 1 to 10 and an elective subject in their upper high school years.

"I think you've got to look at some things that aren't working," Lamrock said. "At the end of the day the one thing that is not negotiable is we're a bilingual province and we need to accelerate and get more kids learning French."

Although Lamrock said the government won't be bound by the commissioners' 18 recommendations, New Brunswickers should expect at least some changes to French language education by September.

"Really we've been treating it almost like it's a religious option whether or not your kid learns French rather than a curriculum outcome," he said.