Remake French immersion into program for all students, commissioners say

New Brunswick's French-immersion program, now serving fewer than half the students in anglophone schools, should be dismantled and replaced with a program for all students, says a report on second-language training in the province.

The report, part of a review of the province's Official Language's Act, says the French immersion program has created two tiers in the school system and suggests students in the non-immersion tier suffer for it.

Debate over French immersion and various adaptations over the years have created a "weariness" among teachers and "confusion" among parents, says the report written by two commissioners, provincial court Judge Yvette Finn and former deputy education minister John McLaughlin.

"It is time for this exhausting and unconstructive cycle to end," said the report released Wednesday.

"Our consultation and research have led us to one overwhelming conclusion: New Brunswick needs one strong, authentic, and engaging French second-language program of studies for all students in the Anglophone sector." 

Immersion not a failure 

A review of the Official Languages Acts is required every 10 years. The report on language training makes 24 recommendations that would see greater second-language training available in New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in the country.

McLaughlin told a news conference that the report isn't saying that French immersion hasn't been successful. He noted that more than 90 per cent of immersion students achieve a conversational level of French. 

The problem is that more than 60 per cent of the students in anglophone schools are not in French immersion, he said.

"And less than 10 per cent — I think it's three per cent of the students — achieve that conversational level when they're assessed in high school," McLaughlin said. "So there's really a disconnect between the students in French Immersion and the students not in French Immersion." 

The province needs to address the two-tiered system created by this disconnect, the report said. 

"It is hard for us to believe that this imbalance is not leading to an inferior learning trajectory for many students in the English Prime program," the report said.

The report recommends an "immersive French second-language learning program" for all students. But exactly how such a program would look and what it would entail would be up to education officials, McLaughlin and Finn said in a statement to CBC News.

Education Minister Dominic Cardy couldn't comment on the report because it had just arrived, said Danielle Elliot, a spokesperson for the department.

"We'll have more to share once we have had an opportunity to review."

Tinkering over the years

French immersion in New Brunswick goes back more than 45 years, and debate about how it's offered isn't new.

In 2008, the Liberal government launched an overhaul of French second-language programs.

The education minister of the day first tried to create a universal French program starting in Grade 5, with students able to choose immersion the following year. But in the face of protests and a court challenge, the Liberals established a Grade 3 entry point for immersion instead.

The Progressive Conservatives opposed the change and launched a public consultation when they took office in 2010. This led to a recommendation for a return to Grade 1, but the Tories didn't implement it.

The Liberals changed their minds when they came to power and restored the Grade 1 entry point in 2017.

When the PCs formed the government again, they abandoned their support for a Grade 1 entry and came out against the Liberal change, arguing there hadn't been enough time to measure whether Grade 3 was working. 

Premier Blaine Higgs has made it clear in the past that language education reform is important to him.  

"I want every child that graduates from our school system to be able to converse in both official languages," Higgs said in an earlier interview with CBC. "And not have a system that 50 per cent or less, or more are coming out without that capability."

New Brunswickers can't always communicate

McLaughlin told the news conference that official bilingualism is unique to New Brunswick, "to our character, to our history, to who we are as a people."

But large numbers of New Brunswickers aren't able to communicate with each other because they aren't bilingual, which leads to tensions between the two official language communities. 

"We have to create opportunities for people to better understand and get to know each other," he said.

The report addressed the need at every level, from early childhood learning into adulthood. 

Far fewer anglophones are bilingual than francophones, the report said. Seventy-five per cent of francophones say they speak both official languages, but only 15 per cent of anglophones say they can. 

"This means there are still large numbers of individuals from both linguistic communities who do not speak or understand their second official language," the report said.