Evidence of meeting #78 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was students.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
At the end of elementary school, of grade 6, our results are just as high across all subjects.
Liberal
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
Even in English, yes.
Liberal
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
It means that if 100 students are registered in elementary school...
Liberal
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
Those are numbers for junior and senior high school.
In high school, most of the subjects are taught in English. Therefore, French as a second language, enriched French and French as the language of instruction are offered to students. You will find that in most of our schools, based on the models and the population. It is a challenge. More courses may also be taught in French, such as history and citizenship, geography, and others.
In 2006, 35% of students were registered in immersion at the high school level, mainly in a program other than the core French second language course.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Now for the 70%.
Does it mean that 7 out of 10 students in high school are taking their courses in French?
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
No, it varies. We have nine school boards. In the program required under the Education Act, there is a threshold, and we exceed that threshold by 100 %. We go beyond it in one way or another in the Gaspé area and in other regions.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
So it represents a threshold based on the number of courses in French per week.
Pedagogical Services Assistant Director, English Montreal School Board, Quebec English School Boards Association
In high school, even if students are registered in an immersion program, most of their classes will be in English. After all, our school board is an English-language school board. Students are therefore registered in a program. There maybe other subjects in those French immersion classes in which the skills differ from those in a core program.
In high school, most of the day and courses take place in English.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Since I have still have some time left, Mr. Chair, I would like to come back to our topic.
What I have just heard was useful for my own edification.
Here is our subject: what can the federal government do for you? What you are saying is fascinating, but I fail to understand what we should include in our report to explain why this committee in undertaking this study.
Were I a provincial member of Parliament, I would be deeply interested in all of this and have many ideas. However, at the federal level, what can we do for you? You are familiar with our federal programs, which generally have to do with money transfers. Could we do something better and differently, or are you completely satisfied with what the federal government is doing?
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
I think we would point to a number of general things and specific things. It's not by accident that in our remarks we talk about the overall environment in which we work. We are English-speaking institutions in Quebec. That's not always an easy mandate with whatever the government of the day in Quebec might be dealing with.
So it starts with the solidity and pérennité of our institutions if we're going to deliver the programs in French or otherwise. We can't overemphasize—and Monsieur, you had a tremendous role in this—the absolute essential lifeline that the Canada entente gives to our system. We've been up with this committee talking about it, in terms of all of the French second language efforts we've made, because beyond the base of requirements in Quebec, we have to fund the research, the support, and the evaluation with federal moneys.
We have a network of community learning centres funded through the federal-provincial entente. So it would start with that entente remaining solid. We've noted that while the road map is signed, the bilateral agreement that will give life to that in Quebec is a question of some sensitivity with a government, by definition, hostile to federal-provincial cooperation. We think there will be discreet ways from our side, and we hope from yours, to make sure that the bilateral entente does everything it needs to do to support our system.
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
Well, we understand that the official strategy of the current Quebec government is not to sign such ententes. It is to simply repatriate resources with no structure in place.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Do you like the entente of today? Do you want the same entente repeated or do you have improvements to the entente that you would like to see?
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
Well, we would want to make sure there are checks and balances in there that clearly protect our requirements.
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
No. We'll give you one that is in there now that had better survive, which is that the community is consulted on the use of that money. All of the things we use it for are the fruits of our suggestions to both the Quebec and federal governments. The protections ensuring that it is maintained are there somewhat, but we'd like them to be more solid. We need to know that the money will never be passed to Quebec unconditionally.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Mostly, you're satisfied with what exists. Your concern is that it may disappear in the next negotiations.
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
That's certainly—
Liberal
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards Association
That would be one.
If I might, I'll point to just a few other things again with the notion of
preparing things for our community.
To start with, when we know that still there are perhaps 3%—or it might be 4% now—of the massive Canadian civil service in Quebec who are from the minority language community, those are jobs our kids could graduate to. They're part of the environment. The federal government can do more on that.
There are certainly very few opportunities for non-immigrant adults to master French in Quebec. There are federal sources of support and funding that might be made available for that to help parents remain in Quebec and encourage their kids to master French. That would certainly be helpful.
There are exchange programs that have been put at some risk by the current government, with respect, that help students to have experiences across the country in French and English. Support for those is essential too. It is those kinds of things the federal government can do to set the table for us that are really important.