Hundreds of people showed up in Moncton, N.B., Thursday night for the second public consultation on the province’s new French-language education program.
The registration line for the event snaked through the halls of the Delta Hotel and, at one point, people were told the room was at capacity.
“We are hearing in the community that they don’t think that there is some flack and concerns, whereas there are, as you can see by the numbers that have turned out tonight,” said parent Jillian Porter.
“This government is plowing ahead, creating yet more instability, anxiety and burnout,” said one speaker. “Teachers are losing faith in their leaders, and moving away or moving to Francophone districts, and I do not blame them.”
The new education framework states that all students entering kindergarten and Grade 1 will spend half of their day learning core subjects, like literacy and math in English, with the other half of the school day doing exploratory learning in French.
But that’s not enough for many who attended Thursday’s meeting.
“Fifty per cent of French in a day is not enough to teach a student to become bilingual. And 50 per cent of regular curriculum a day is not enough to teach the curriculum,” said Chris Collins with Canadian Parent for French New Brunswick.
“Our children, this generation of children, are going to be robbed of the opportunity to learn how to speak and to be officially bilingual,” he said.
Parent Rudy Walters says, with one son currently in French immersion, he’s worried his other son, who’s starting kindergarten in the fall, won’t get the same opportunity to learn the language.
“It’s really hard to imagine knowing that one child will have those advantages,” said Walters. “Hopefully [he may] be able to help with the younger child, but that other child not having those same advantages and not having those same opportunities.”
The crowd was passionate, loud, and spoke freely with their concerns and comments.
“People do not trust in your government’s good will when proposals like this are made. It seems like just one more way to potentially undermine bilingualism in this province,” said another speaker.
New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan says all the feedback will go into making the final decision.
“I’m very confident in the framework,” said Hogan. “I think part of the issue that we have is, we haven’t done a lot of time explaining ourselves well, and we need to come back to that and explain it and I take the opinions and what was expressed here tonight very seriously.”
As for finding enough teachers to fill the French positions, Hogan says they’re in good shape.
“I think right now that we can fill the Grade 1 positions. We’re pretty sure we can do that, but it is a challenge. I haven’t said anywhere that it’s not a challenge. I’ve acknowledged that and we’re going to continue to work so that we can address that issue.”
Although some do not feel the ongoing public consultations will make a difference in the Higgs’ government’s decision.
“Just the fact that it’s so rushed and they’ve been reluctant to present data to the population,” said Moncton resident Marc Surette. “I’m not very confident that this is going to be able to change their minds.”
