Ex-education minister Kelly Lamrock says Grade 3 entry retained students

Former education minister Kelly Lamrock said having a Grade 3 start for French immersion students saw an increase in the amount of children enrolled along with how many stuck with course. 

Premier Brian Gallant announced last week that the early entry point for French immersion would be moving back to Grade 1.

Lamrock was the education minister who originally announced the changes to the early French immersion program in 2008.

Before the 2008 change, Lamrock said only about 30 per cent of students enrolled in the Grade 1 early immersion program. 

He said once the government bumped up the entry point to Grade 3, 42 per cent of students enrolled. 

• French immersion returns to Grade 1 early entry 
• Education Minister Brian Kenny says parents wanted early immersion

"That's a 40 per cent increase in the number of kids who are in the early immersion stream," said Lamrock, pulling statistics from the 2015 government report on enrolment. 

"If the goal is to make people bilingual, job one is to have an immersion program that more of them take."

Lamrock said as the classes progress, students tend to drop out.

He said with the Grade 1 entry point, 23 per cent of students wouldn't make it to Grade 5. With the Grade 3 entry point, that drop out rate is down to eight per cent. 

"It does suggest that teachers have had a greater ability in those early years perhaps to prepare children and get them ready and confident to learn and they're encountering fewer struggles in French," said Lamrock.

A Cadillac program for the few

Information Morning - Fredericton13:43Kelly Lamrock - French Immersion

Terry Seguin talks to the former education minister who introduced Grade 3 immersion about what he thinks of the plan to go back to Grade 1.Lamrock said the only reason the government might want to change the entry point is to improve the quality of the learning for the students who do end up sticking with it. 

But Lamrock said even that is hard to know for sure, as the students who went through the Grade 3 entry point haven't been tested. 

Our highest literacy score ever occurred among that first class that waited until Grade 3.- Kelly Lamrock

"That's the one thing I can't claim to know, you don't know and the government doesn't know, because they haven't yet tested a single one of the kids who went under the new system," said Lamrock. 

"Is it good enough to have a Cadillac program for 30 per cent of the population if 70 per cent wind up in less amenable classrooms as a result."

English literacy

One of the concerns that have been raised with the Grade 1 entry point is that it could hamper children's ability to learn English and hurt their literacy skills. 

Lamrock said the Grade 3 entry point was accompanied by excellent literacy. 

"The best ever literacy score in New Brunswick was achieved by the class that entered Grade 1 in 2008," said Lamrock. 

"So our highest literacy score ever occurred among that first class that waited until Grade 3."

Lamrock confessed the numbers become less conclusive after 2009, as literacy began to decline.