Official Languages committee  No, that's another framework. It's the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. All European languages are based on the same level. According to our results up until now, immersion programs allow students to reach a B2 level, whereas for basic programs, B1 is the level that is aimed for.

Official Languages committee  Not exactly. As a matter of fact, that's the statistic for kindergarten. For 62% of 5-year-old children, parents choose the early immersion program. From a global perspective, many other children choose a point of entry in the 4th grade. Others choose to continue on with regular programs in English.

Official Languages committee  Oh yes, it's unique.

Official Languages committee  No, no, there is no lack of will. There really is a willingness to support these programs. Our school board is responsible for a pilot project which, in the beginning, grouped 13 of 72 school boards, and it now extends to all English-language school boards; there are 60 of them.

Official Languages committee  Yes, of course, and it really is very well supported. I would imagine that each province works differently, but in the case of what our school board receives for education, there is a per-student basis. There is another sort of fund that is dedicated to French as a second language.

Official Languages committee  I will have to check. It's in the program.

Official Languages committee  You want to know how many continue on until the end of grade 12?

Official Languages committee  Indeed, 62% of our kindergarten students are in early immersion.

Official Languages committee  I will talk a little bit about myself, but first of all, I will talk about what we do with regard to program evaluation. As Justin already mentioned, the vast majority of the country's students are enrolled in core French programs. We are entirely capable of producing competent students, and in this regard, I would point to myself as an example.

Official Languages committee  Now I'll talk a little bit more about myself. I have to admit that languages interested me, and so I continued to study them in high school. Afterwards, I went to Carleton University, and then I did a one-year exchange at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. Mr. Dion, part of the program offered the opportunity to request a bursary to go and study in Trois-Rivières, and I took advantage of it.

Official Languages committee  One thing about immersion programs must be emphasized. At the high school level, sometimes students will decide not to continue with the immersion program because they must take certain classes in order to be admitted to certain university programs, and those classes are not always offered in immersion programs.

Official Languages committee  Yes, but our school board is not at all typical for the country, that's for sure.

Official Languages committee  I don't believe that we have to choose between the two. Instead, we should ask ourselves how we could improve both programs. If we concentrate only on immersion programs, it would be very difficult for all locations to offer them. We must seek to improve both programs. That way, it will create what you wish to see in the end; you will have students who, once they leave high school, after having followed the core program, or the immersion program, will have a level of French that is acceptable.

Official Languages committee  The quality of the teaching is a job for the boards of education, the school boards and the provinces. Access to programs is also the responsibility of the school boards, the boards of education and the provinces. It would be very difficult for the federal government to intervene in these areas.

Official Languages committee  For the core programs and for the immersion programs. My second recommendation, and I don't know if you heard about this before, is that there needs to be some kind of measure in order to evaluate language proficiency. If we want to be able to say how many students are bilingual after completing our programs and what level they're at, we need a common method of measurement to do so.