Parents say 'non' to N.B. French language plan

The elimination of early French immersion in New Brunswick classrooms flies in the face of research that suggests that it is better for children to learn a second language early, according to a pro-French lobby group.

"In order to continue to develop anglophone students' skills in French as a second language and to ensure they are eligible to secure bilingual jobs in the future, it is imperative New Brunswick continue to offer the early French immersion program to our students," said Walter Lee, president of the New Brunswick chapter of Canadian Parents for French.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock announced on Friday that the government is accepting the recommendations of a government-commissioned report on French language education in English schools.

Beginning in September, parents will no longer be able to enrol their children in early French immersion. The core French program, which currently makes the language a mandatory subject in school, beginning in Grade 1, will also be eliminated.

French second-language programming will be replaced with an intensive French program, which will require all Grade 5 students to take five months of the language. Students and parents will then have the option of either enrolling in a late immersion program in Grade 6 or beginning a more extensive core program.

All students will also be required to take French until Grade 12 with the goal of having 70 per cent of New Brunswick graduates finishing school with intermediate language proficiency.

"This decision is a travesty and it is a ludicrous move from a government of the only officially bilingual province in Canada," Lee said.  "It is sending us back in time 35 years."

Discussions have already started about developing independent early French immersion schools, according to a Canadian Parents for French news release.

The organization is also reviewing if the change is in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to the release.

Opposition education critic Madeleine Dube said rather than eliminate early immersion, the government should be investing more resources in it.

'Embarrassing,' says Opposition

"To hear the minister and the premier, Shawn Graham, to accept that, to eliminate French second-language for all children across the province at an early age … I'm disappointed and it's really embarrassing as well."

Lamrock said the current French programming offered in the province's English schools is not meeting its objectives.

Report commissioners James Croll and Patricia Lee released 18 recommendations for the province's French second-language programs on Feb. 27 after reviewing the outcomes of French instruction for students who began school in 1995 and graduated in 2006.

The report found approximately 91 per cent of the 1,500 or so students who started early immersion in 1995 had dropped out of the program by the time they reached high school.

The study also found that only 0.68 per cent of the high school students that graduated in 2006 after completing the core program had reached the provincial objectives of intermediate oral proficiency.

Reliable academic research from across Canada and the United States have clearly indicated early immersion is the best method for children to learn a second language and produces the highest language proficiency, Lee said.

Graham's Liberal government will be remembered for cancelling early French immersion in the province, he predicted.

Language education an emotional issue

Lamrock said the government expected mixed reaction about the program changes because second-language education is such an emotional issue for New Brunswick.

Saint John resident Andrew Friel said he thinks the changes might serve students well.

"Personally, I feel that it's actually going to be better. Myself, I took late immersion and in my time it was Grade 7, and I feel I'm relatively bilingual today," Friel said.

But another resident, Robert Goguen, said pushing the language training back to Grade 5 may be a mistake.

"Doing the same French program's not a bad idea but doing Grade 5 is a mistake," said Goguen. "Basically, the earlier you start learning something the more it sticks with you and the more your capacity to learn is, I guess, enhanced."