Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Firstly, I would like to thank you for your invitation and this opportunity to speak to you.
The Greater North Central, which now serves 2,323 students, was founded in 1994 following the Mahé decision, which handed over management of the school board to parents. Our mandate is two-fold. Our schools are located in the Edmonton area, and in Legal, Saint-Albert, Red Deer, Fort McMurray, Wainwright and Jasper.
Our mission is to turn things around and stop the assimilation of francophones. Our mandate is two-fold: we work to redress and to integrate. As such, we make efforts to reintegrate francophones who were neglected when there were no French-language schools nor French school boards. Our mandate is to also integrate. Today, the profile of francophones living in Alberta has changed significantly, and we owe it to ourselves to integrate everyone, including exogamous families. This is also a major challenge for us.
In spite of all the progress achieved, there's still a lot on our plate. There's still much to be done in terms of sensitizing the community. Many people still do not believe in the benefit of French-language education. Only 15% of eligible students are enrolled in our schools. Francization is also becoming a major issue for us. Many of our students are from exogamous families who speak very little French at home. Because of this, we try to provide quality francization programs and we go to great lengths to communicate with parents who do not speak French. Therefore, there is a need to integrate these parents.
In order to boost francization and fulfil our needs, we began providing full-time kindergarten programs, support to preschool services, and francophone child care services. We hope that these services will be institutionalized. Currently, preschool services are being offered by parent volunteers. Our fear is that some children will not be able to attend French-language preschool, and parents are worried that their child will not have the linguistic ability needed to register in the French-language program. Therefore, we need a lot of support on that level.
In addition, there still remains a lot of work to be done on cultural and identity issues. As I said earlier, many of our children are from different backgrounds. Therefore, in order for them to identify with francophone culture, there's a lot of work that must be done.
The arrival of francophone immigrants means that additional efforts must be made for recruitment and for conveying information on the programs we offer.
Another one of our major issues is keeping our students. Many of them live in small communities where our services are far from being equivalent to English-speaking services. We have since taken more interest in distance learning. This is a major challenge for us, but when it comes to deciding between a long-distance teacher and a classroom teacher, generally the second choice prevails. Therefore, when it comes time for parents to choose between long-distance French-language education and on-site English-language education, the choice is often difficult.
We also experience problems recruiting and teaching staff. In small communities, it is not always easy to find qualified French-speaking candidates.
In 2004, our school board took part in the national study on achieving full francophone educational administration in minority communities, a study on communities' needs commissioned by the National Federation of Francophone School Boards. The study highlighted the need to launch an awareness, identification and information campaign targeted at parents. Very often, we find that parents are simply unaware. There is a lot of confusion surrounding what is understood as a francophone school and an immersion school.
We wish to thank the federal government for the support it has provided us through the official languages program. The program is essential for us. It is through this funding that we are able to provide full-time kindergarten, with a lot of francization.
These funds also allow us to carry out promotional and recruitment campaigns. We also have cultural programs that were developed in partnership with the community. We have cultural liaison agents working in the schools, who also provide programs within the community. Therefore, this funding is essential for us.
Early childhood development is another crucial issue. This ties into what I was saying earlier about preschool services. Francization efforts must be made as soon as the child is born, so that when it comes time to begin school, parents do not have to worry about their child's linguistic abilities.
As a school authority, this funding does not come to us automatically, but we do need support from the federal government.