Good afternoon.
My name is Nicolas Bourdon, and I teach CEGEP students at Collège de Bois‑de‑Boulogne. I hope I do as good a job of sticking to my allotted time as Mr. Lacroix did.
As Mr. Lacroix and others have pointed out, French is fragile, not just in the rest of Canada, but also in Quebec. We are seeing that in CEGEPs as well. As CEGEP teachers, we found the situation very worrisome and joined forces. We came up with five devastating findings, prompting us to push for Bill 101 to be enforced in CEGEPs. The five findings appear in my PowerPoint presentation, which the clerk should have shared with you.
The first finding is that the amount of funding received by the English CEGEP system is not proportional to the anglophone community's demographic weight. English speakers make up about 8% of Quebec's population, but English CEGEPs account for 17.5% of CEGEP enrolment, just over double the size of the English population. This, too, is an example of institutional overfunding, but at the college level.
The second finding is that English CEGEPs are now attended primarily by non-English-speaking students, in other words, francophones and allophones. Those institutions were established mainly for the English-speaking community, which is entirely appropriate and fine by me. However, francophones and allophones now make up two thirds of enrolment at English CEGEPs.
The third finding is that unhealthy competition exists between English and French CEGEPs. English CEGEPs have the advantage, and as a result of this competition, we as teachers are seeing francophone CEGEPs become anglicized. In order to compete with English CEGEPs, French CEGEPs have had to develop English-language programming and bilingual college diplomas. Our group wanted to send the message that it was time to put a stop to that, because French CEGEPs, themselves, were becoming anglicized.
The fourth finding is that English CEGEPs have become colleges for the elite, chosen by students with the highest R scores. The R score is used to rank a student's academic performance in relation to their overall average. English CEGEPs attract the top students. Here is a glaring example. Montreal's Dawson College accepts only 30% of its science program applicants and can therefore pick the cream of the crop.
The fifth finding, but not the least, is that the English CEGEP system contributes significantly to the anglicization of Quebec's population overall, especially those on the island of Montreal. As Mr. Lacroix mentioned, when someone attends an English-language university, they take up their career in English. That's also true of English CEGEPs. Research on the subject reveals that students who attend English CEGEPs go on to do their university studies in English and pursue careers in English. That means there is a strong correlation between attending an English-language CEGEP and living your life in English. The reverse is also true: Attending a French-language CEGEP puts you on a much more francophone track. Students who attend French CEGEPs tend to choose French universities and enter the workforce in French.
I hope I didn't go over my time.