Fewer School District 43 students are learning en français and that’s a worry, says Canadian Parents for French BC and Yukon.
The French language parent advocacy group released figures this week that showed Coquitlam experienced a decline in French Immersion enrolment of 77 students in 2018/’19 (the most recent figures available), which amounts to a bit of a dip after years of growth.
“Do you have wait lists and, if you do, what can you do to open up new classrooms in the right areas to make programs more accessible? And that’s the bottom line,” said Glyn Lewis, CPF's executive director.
His organization issued a press release this week showing French Immersion has grown in most districts, indicating heavy demand for the program, but Coquitlam numbers have dropped slightly, along with those in Vancouver and Surrey.
Lewis said CPF fears more parents will be facing wait lists for programs they want unless school administrators make more of an effort to find space for French Immersion classes. And he told The Tri-City News that not being able to find room is no excuse because students require the same space, whether it’s in a French Immersion class or a regular program.
“They’re going to have to place these kids somewhere, it’s just a matter of managing your enrolment,” Lewis said.
In SD43, dealing with limited classroom capacity and finding teachers are just some of the reasons the district is seeing a decline, according to superintendent Patricia Gartland.
As well, in 2018, SD43 moved some French Immersion programs and enrolment growth in the new schools hasn’t made up for the drop after the move.
At the time, SD43 said programs had to move from Glen elementary, Pitt River middle and Banting middle to Westwood elementary, Citadel middle and Montgomery middle because of space issues as a result of the the restored class size and composition language as well as projected regular enrolment growth. Some children subsequently dropped out of French Immersion when the program moved although some of the changes are still being phased in.
“Sometimes, if a child is residing in that catchment area, they may go into French Immersion, but then you move it to a different catchment area, they don't want to go to the other catchment areas, and they're more likely to drop out of French Immersion at that point. But usually those numbers normalize,” Gartland told The Tri-City News this week.
It can take up to a few years for the new programs to transition and make up the numbers, according to the district, so while there are wait lists for kindergarten spots for early French Immersion and for Grade 6 spots for late French Immersion, district-wide there are enough spaces to accommodate wait-listed students.
“You have demand going up for the program but we have supply limitation not only on your instructors, but also in space,” Gartland said.
The CPF’s Lewis said he hopes his organization’s latest enrolment report will spur school districts to find ways to accommodate interest in French Immersion programs. Last year, he was in Coquitlam celebrating the program’s 50th anniversary in the district, and said he hopes something can be done to accommodate demand where it’s needed.
As of the 2018-2019 school year, 53,995 students were enrolled in French immersion across B.C., or 9.49% of the province's total student population. In SD43, 3,876 students were enrolled in French Immersion classes last year, or or 11.64% of total enrolment.
