Long wait list for Whitehorse French immersion

Some Yukon parents are hoping the department of education will create more spaces for early French immersion. 

The number of children on the wait list to start kindergarten at École Whitehorse Elementary is enough to fill an entire extra class says Kristina Craig, president of the Whitehorse chapter of Canadian Parents for French. The group promotes French-second-language learning for young people.

​"We know that 23 kids is actually one more kindergarten. It's not, you know, four or five — it's a whole class," she says. 

Early French immersion runs from kindergarten to Grade 7 at Whitehorse Elementary and from Grades 8 to 12 at F.H. Collins Secondary School. A late French immersion program starts at Whitehorse Elementary in Grade 6.  

For the first time, a lottery was used this year to determine which children can attend the program in the fall of 2015, instead of a first-come-first-serve system. 

"I think that it's obvious that parents would like French-second-language learning in an early French immersion way," says Craig. "The wait lists have shown that over time."

Craig says there were 19 students on the wait list last year and may have been a wait list in previous years. 

She says Canadian Parents for French has met with the government and will meet again soon to discuss the issue. 

"We know that they're working on it because we've met with them because this has been a concern. And we're really hoping that in the fall of 2015 they'll add that class."

Craig says there can be a lot of anxiety for parents with children on the wait list. She says most of the parents are anglophones who would like their children to study in French.