Less Spanish, more French: CEGEP teachers decry loss of language courses under Bill 96

CEGEP professors and administrators say additional French courses required by Bill 96 will prevent students from studying other languages.

When the changes mandated by the bill, which is now known as Law 14, are fully in effect, students will have fewer options to pursue their interests at CEGEP and teachers who teach other languages, like Spanish or Mandarin, could lose their jobs, CEGEP staff at Vanier and Dawson Colleges told CBC news on Thursday. 

"I think it's important to learn French," said Joy Lin, a Mandarin Chinese instructor at Dawson College.

"However, I don't think it's fair to take away students' opportunities to learn foreign languages and also I don't think it is a way to treat teachers who have devoted ourselves to teaching for so many years."

Starting this fall, incoming students who don't have a certificate of eligibility to study in English (COE) — primarily francophones and allophones — will have to take a French exit exam to graduate CEGEP. To prepare them for that exam, English CEGEPs must offer additional French courses. 

One of those additional French courses will take the place of a complementary course. Formerly, students had two complementary courses which they could use to study subjects outside their primary field. A science student could take a course in media studies or philosophy, for example — or they could opt to learn another language like Spanish. 

And, with two complementary courses, a student once could have chosen to use both to build up to a level of proficiency in a language, taking Spanish I and II, for instance, according to Alena Perout, the dean of the faculty of arts, business and social sciences at Vanier College.

Now, they won't have that choice. 

"Definitely less choice for students," Perout said. "I think having several languages — English and French being the first two, but whether it's Spanish or Mandarin or German — is very important in today's world and I think that we should make every effort possible to make sure that these languages [classes] survive."

Perout said the impact of the law on English students, those with a COE, is, as of yet, less clear.

Those students will have to take additional courses in French starting in the fall of 2024, but she said it will be up to each CEGEP how to implement those and it is not yet clear if they will have to replace other complementary courses.

What is clear is that there will be less work for language instructors like Christina Chough, who teaches Spanish at Dawson College and chairs the modern languages department.

CEGEP administrators, she said, are looking at ways to save the language teachers' jobs, including possibly having them teach courses in French. 

"I think that everyone's concerned about this because this is not what we signed up for. We are really just innocent bystanders in a political move and it's very difficult," she said.

"The administrations are struggling to find a way to accommodate the government in the new law, but at the same time protect teachers and ensure student success."

Bryan St-Louis, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, said in an emailed statement the ministry acknowledges that Law 14 would affect complementary courses. 

"However," he said, "various programs, such as the arts, humanities and communication programs, will still be able to offer foreign language courses."