People's Alliance calls on minister to reconsider immersion change

The People's Alliance has joined the call for the Higgs government to reverse its proposed replacement of French immersion with a new French-second-language program.

The Alliance, which has been sharply critical of how official bilingualism is implemented, says giving anglophones a chance to learn French is vital.

"New Brunswick is a unique province, proudly the only bilingual province in the country," Rudy Walters, the president of the party's board of directors, said in a recent letter to Education Minister Bill Hogan asking him to reconsider the change.

"It is ridiculous to think that we could soon be the only province in the country to not offer a French Immersion program." 

The Alliance elected two MLAs in the last provincial election, including leader Kris Austin, but both members joined the Progressive Conservative caucus last March. 

The province plans to begin phasing in a new program this fall for all students in which they'll spend half the school day learning in English and half in French.

While supporters of immersion argue that's not enough French, Walters says many Alliance supporters consider it too much in a universal, compulsory program.

"Families should have the ability to choose whether or not their kids are fully immersed or just simply receive the French training as part of the English prime program," he said in an interview.

"The families should have that choice. It shouldn't be pushed on anybody to have 50 per cent of the day in French, and it shouldn't also be taken away for the families that do want that additional language training."

In 2019, then-Alliance leader Kris Austin called French immersion "a dismal failure," citing the number of graduates of the program who aren't fluent in the language.

Walters said it's difficult to call the immersion program a failure "when we haven't seen the results of it yet."

He pointed out the entry point for immersion was moved back to Grade 1 in 2017, so the students in that system haven't reached high school yet to be assessed.

Austin is now a Progressive Conservative cabinet minister. 

Last fall, before the 50-50 program was announced, Austin said he would not want to see changes that were "so overriding" that children would not be able to learn math, science and basic literacy.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Austin wouldn't say whether he supports the plan.

"Where [the department] is currently in the consultation process it would be premature to offer an opinion," he said. "As such, I will reserve any opinion until a final decision is made."

At public consultations, some parents have said they are worried that children with learning challenges will have a hard time developing reading skills in English with their classroom time reduced to just half the day in the language.

PC MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason said last month she was hearing from some parents upset their kids won't get enough French to be fluent, and from others who don't want their kids "forced to take French. That should be an option."

Walters said he wrote the letter to Hogan instead of current party leader Rick DeSaulniers because the issue is "deeply personal" for him, though DeSaulniers supports the position completely.

Walters has one child in immersion now and another he would enrol if the program weren't being replaced.

His son in immersion has "taken off immensely" learning French, "and if that's any indicator of how other children are doing, I believe that Grade 1 entry to French immersion is exactly where it should be." 

He says if there are problems with the quality of the non-immersion English prime stream, the government should provide more resources to it.