Thank you, Mr. Maddix.
Good afternoon, everyone.
To begin with, I would like to set the record straight on language learning. First of all, allow me to quote Pierre Calvé, a former linguistics and education professor at the University of Ottawa, to explain our point of view on immersion programs. He said the following:
A language basically serves four purposes: a) to communicate; b) to think, reflect and develop ideas; c) to obtain and store information; d) to forge an identity as a member of a specific human community.
In our view, learning the language both in immersion programs and in French-language schools achieves these four functions of a language, be it a person's first or second.
I want to draw a distinction between immersion and French-language school. In addition to making it possible to communicate, think and obtain information, learning a second language in an immersion program helps build a Canadian identity characterized by linguistic and cultural duality. In French-language schools, language learning occurs in a linguistic, cultural and civic context. In other words, all activities related to teaching the curriculum contribute to the learning of French as a first language, whether it be shows, the arts, celebrations, mathematics or science. We learn and we build our cultural identity as much during mathematics and science classes as in French classes. This characterizes our French-language schools.
As a result, the cultural approach of teaching in a French-language civic community school contributes to and influences the construction of an individual and collective cultural identity. When students enter the school, they therefore construct an individual and collective cultural identity characteristic of the francophone and Acadian communities that created Canada.
You asked us to offer some recommendations. The Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones has three recommendations to submit to you. Immersion programs and French-language schools respond to specific and complementary needs from a national unity perspective. We therefore think it is essential to ensure they are developed and promoted in an enlightened and fair way for all Canadians.
Our first recommendation concerns information and promotion. Therefore, we hope your committee will recommend in its report that the Canadian government support the steps taken to inform the Canadian population, including immigrants, that we have a French-language education system and immersion programs in English-language schools, and to explain the distinction between the particular scope and mandate of both systems. We believe that if all Canadians had a better understanding of this distinction, there might be a decrease in the high percentage of students from eligible families who do not attend French-language schools.
According to Rodrigue Landry's studies, barely one in two rights holders attends French-language schools. Where are these rights holders?
This approach, which is based on information and promotion, might help resolve the problem of the capacity of immersion schools to respond to the ever-growing demand and enable French-language schools to fulfill their mission.
Our second recommendation concerns funding. The basic distinction between immersion schools and French-language schools also involves separate funding. In that respect, we hope your committee will recommend better accountability with respect to education transfer payments from the federal government to the provinces and territories. Currently, it is almost impossible to know exactly how these amounts are used. However, it seems that considerable amounts intended for education in French as a first language were used to develop immersion programs, and perhaps vice versa as well; we do not know. There is a significant need when it comes to French-language education, and federal contributions set aside for it are essential to deploying a French-language education system.
Our third and final recommendation concerns the continuum.
When the time comes to make the important choice of education language, Canadians consider a combination of factors related to accessibility and quality of instruction, among other things. One factor influencing this decision is the possibility of doing postsecondary studies in the language of choice.
To that end, we hope your committee will recommend to the Canadian government that it look into postsecondary teaching in French so that Canadians can choose a school that offers French-as-a-second-language immersion or French-as-a-first-language education, with the assurance that they can continue their studies in French at the postsecondary level. That goes directly back to what our colleague Mr. Corbeil just mentioned. Students do not have the opportunity to speak the language. There is therefore no follow-up and perhaps no opportunities. Consequently, they become discouraged.
By doing so, we are guaranteeing our country a generation of bilingual young professionals who are able to take on our society's political, economic and cultural levers.