English class in high demand at Winnipeg high school
New EAL teacher hired after spike in refugee students at St. John's High School
Students from five different countries who could barely speak English 10 months ago have now been able to form friendships at their Winnipeg high school.
Most of the Grade 7 and 8 students are refugees from Somalia, Syria, Tanzania and Zambia who are part of a new English as an additional language class being offered at St. John's High School.
Gallant said the kids have all formed bonds and friendships, as they learn to read and write in English together.
"To know I was a part of that, it's very valuable, I love seeing it every day," he said.
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"I've been seeing them every day for a year, you don't see those small improvements every day but when you step out and see it from a different perspective, you see just how far they've come."
The program is one of two EAL classes being offered at St. John's. The new program was added last April after an influx of new students arrived last year.
"The numbers were getting to be really large, we had upwards of 30 plus students for one teacher in one EAL program from Grade 7 to Grade 12," said principal Doug Taylor, who said he expects to see more refugee students arrive before the end of the year.
"There was a real need to focus on some Grade 7 to 8 students who had particular needs, and we needed a specialist and Mark [Gallant] really filled that void."
Jacob Mpoyo, 13, is from Zambia, and he recalls the first time he saw snow when he arrived in Winnipeg in 2013.
"When I came here I saw the snow and I thought it was like a decoration," said Mpoyo, who now loves skiing and sledding.
Mpoyo said he loves Canada and the many friends he has made at school, but he also misses his family and friends from home in Africa.
"I miss climbing the trees, getting in the meadows and having my own garden," he said with a smile.
"I miss my friends."
Tulizia Shabani came from Tanzania a year ago. She said her English has improved over the last few months but it's not her favourite class.
"I like math," she said.
'We're ready'
Gallant said he expects to see more new students in his class this year because of the ongoing refugee crisis.
"They're always coming, you never know when anyone could show up, it could be tomorrow it could be next week, but we're ready," said Gallant.
The province said there are 130 new refugee claimants this year and school boards across Winnipeg are also dealing with a huge spike in the number of EAL students.
Earlier this week trustees with the Winnipeg School Division say schools have had to stretch resources to accommodate the large number of newcomers.
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In the Winnipeg School Division, the number of refugee students enrolled has increased this year to 184 from 170 last year.
The division said the number of EAL students has also grown from 6,296 in 2013 to 7,052 in 2016.
In southeast Winnipeg, the Louis Riel School Division says the number of EAL students has jumped from about 400 in 2013 to 1,200 this year.
'It's an ongoing challenge'
Provincial Education Minister Ian Wishart would not commit to more funding on Thursday but he says it's an issue his government is watching closely.
"We're certainly evaluating where we're headed with that because it's not a problem that is being resolved in one year, it's an ongoing challenge," Wishart said.
He said the federal government has already provided additional funding of about a million dollars for EAL programs last year.
NDP education critic Wab Kinew said the Pallister government needs to do more to specifically address the challenges facing school divisions when it comes to refugees entering the public school system and target funding.
"We have situations where school divisions in our province may have declining enrolment and so under the Pallister formula they're going to get less money and yet they could have huge numbers of EAL students," said Kinew. "Kids need to be able to get an education, that's going to be their path to success in our province."
