N.B. compromises on cuts to French immersion, offers program in Grade 3
Published Tuesday August 5th, 2008
FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick government admitted it learned important political lessons on Tuesday as it modified a controversial decision to scrap early immersion in the province's English schools.
Premier Shawn Graham and Education Minister Kelly Lamrock announced the return of early French immersion, beginning in Grade 3, after weathering a firestorm of criticism over the decision to axe the Grade 1 immersion program.
"No one gives you a manual on how to govern," Graham said ruefully as he acknowledged the difficulty of French education issues in Canada's only officially bilingual province.
"But I know there is more that unites us than divides us."
Beginning in 2010, there will be two entry points for French immersion in New Brunswick - Grade 3 and Grade 6.
Parents who had hoped to enter their children into Grade 1 French immersion this year remain out of luck.
Beginning in September, a universal kindergarten to Grade 2 program will be offered to all English students in which pupils will be introduced to French language and culture through music, art and other programs.
The program is designed to eliminate streaming in the English school system in which almost all special needs students were ending up in a core program while higher achieving students were being placed in less-crowded immersion classes.
"Streaming has been ignored for too long," Lamrock said.
By the time students reach Grade 3 - the first class will be in 2010 - they can go into either immersion or an "English-prime" program that offers more French training.
There also will be intensive French for English prime classes in Grade 5, and more French programs in high school.
"We believe this plan strikes the right balance between bilingualism and equality," Lamrock said.
Lamrock's announcement in March that he was cancelling Grade 1 immersion shocked many parents who regarded the program as a Cadillac service for French-language instruction.
For months Lamrock stood up to angry parents, insisting the old system wasn't working.
New Brunswick consistently lags behind other provinces in student test scores, and its French immersion and core programs were producing only a handful of proficient students every year.
Lamrock said the lack of success was an embarrassment in bilingual New Brunswick.
But when a judge agreed with a group of parents that the changes were unfair and unreasonable, the government was forced to submit the issue to six weeks of public consultation that produced the compromise announced on Tuesday.
Graham and Lamrock said the court-ordered public consultation was a good thing that opened their eyes to new possibilities.
"We were stronger because of it," Graham said. "We embraced it."
Graham's two-year-old Liberal administration took a lot of heat over the issue, one of the most contentious since it came to office.
Conservative education critic Madeleine Dube said the Liberal move frightened people.
"They've lost a lot of trust," she said. "People see this government as too centralized."
But some of the harshest critics of the decision to cut Grade 1 immersion were somewhat mollified by the latest plan on Tuesday.
"It's a compromise," said Paula Kristmanson of the Second Language Education Institute at the University of New Brunswick.
"We wanted early entry into immersion. We still feel that is the best way to achieve effective functioning in a second language, but we can work with the minister in this new model."
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1) Change is not necessarily an improvement. Change can be for the worse
2)Grade 3 immersion start will not match other provinces
3) Why can Ontario and Alberta get much better results than we do and have EFI whereas we can not. That is the question the minister has not addressed nor wants to address as it would prove his plan is faulty
4)In 2010 in grade 3, students will choose immersion or Englis-Prime, justa new name for core. How can the minister believe that changing the name is an educational improvement.
5)He says only 20% were able to take immersion under the old system but 70% will under the new system where the only difference will be starting in grade 3 rather than grade 1. Under what logic will that happen.
6)How will immersion be available to all students when it was only available to 20% where the only change is a grade 3 start.
7)The old core program had overcrowded classes and were ill equiped states the minister
By refuing to admit that he made the initial changes without proper research and consultaton, The minister stubbornly wants to make a change to prove he is right than to address the real problems of the system. That is where the lack of logic is.
I agree with JG R -- change for its own sake is not good.
I am now waiting for the Conservative party to take a firm stand on this issue, so the province can vote the Liberals out in 2010. God help us if the Tories won't promise to reinstate EFI at grade 1 (or even begin it at Kindergarten, like most enlightened systems).
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/cannb/New_Brunswick_Homeschooling.htm
I would like to thank all of those who lent their voice to this cause over the past 6 months. Regardless of the details of the outcome we can be proud that we forced the government to at least listen to us...something they were most unwilling to do when all of this began. Maybe the next time a Minister sets about making a policy decision he/she will have the courtesy to treat the citizens of this province with the respect they deserve by ensuring that the logic is sound and that their critics have been listened to.
I for one cannot forgive being painted as a 'segregationist' and will begin tomorrow to work toward the defeat of this government in the next election.
I should be surprised that the haters are still hating, and unwilling to accept anything that is not the program that best helps their upper-middle-class darlings outperform the less fortunate. I expect some of these wonderful folks who are looking to the next election to put their names on the ballot.
In fact, let's make it a challenge: Michael Wilcott, I challenge you to run against Lamrock. Don't worry about not living in his riding. He didn't either, when first elected.