Lack of teachers spells the end of bilingual Arabic program

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) says it won't be able to offer an Arabic bilingual program to students.

The CBE says it's an issue of supply and demand. They want to offer a bilingual program to many Calgary families that are interested, but there aren't enough teachers qualified to teach the program.

The CBE says it requires a unique skill set as teachers must be able to teach in both Arabic and English, and must also have an Alberta Teachers certificate.

Now as an alternative, the CBE says it wants to offer an Arabic language course to high school students if enough students sign up. The only problem is the school board put a posting up a few months ago for teachers interested in the course and there's been no applications so far.