Every Canadian parent needs to read this and do whatever possible to stop the latest attempt to Dumb Down our Children’s Education. The vote to change is taking place on September 25, 2012.
Imagine if students in Quebec were told that there would be a lottery system for them to learn English. Even if students were lucky enough to gain admittance to 
an English Immersion school, the English instruction would drop from 85% to 50% for every student. There would be outrage! But this is exactly what the Peel board is trying to do to their elementary school French immersion program.
At a meeting on September 11, the elementary French Immersion Review Committee proposed 21 recommendations to handle the lack of “qualified staff” to teach French immersion and extended French programs.
Effective September 2013 the board plans to implement 50% daily instructional time in French for grades 1 to 8. This is lower than anywhere in Canada. Should families relocate to anywhere out of the Peel district their children will not be able to continue with French Immersion because they will be below the standard of children everywhere else in Canada!
There is also a planned enrolment cap on all grade one elementary French Immersion Peel programs effective September 2013.
This is completely unacceptable in a bilingual country. There has to be another solution to the shortage of qualified teachers. This is an easy out for the teacher’s board that is dumbing down our education system. If the Peel Board is allowed to get away with this, there is no telling what will come next for boards across Canada. Other French Immersion programs will surely be on the chopping block. Will they propose to make math classes a lottery because there are not enough teachers who know how to add and subtract?
If there are not enough qualified French speaking teachers in a bilingual country, maybe that’s a sign that we should make every attempt possible to ensure that we will have more French-speaking Canadians in the future.
This is not just a problem for French Immersion parents in the Peel district. It is a problem for every parent in Canada who wants to see that cut backs do not happen to our children’s education.
I urge everyone to sign the following petition and to write a letter to the school trustees and Mississauga South’s MPP Charles Sousa csousa.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Regardless of where you live, we cannot let the school board get away with taking away the right of every Canadian child to learn both English and French.
Thank you for publishing this article on your website. It is so important that we stand up for the sake of our children’s education! Let’s just hope we CAN make a difference!
This is outrageous! My daughter is attending junior kindergarten this year and I want her to attend french immersion when she hits grade one. I think the schools should start teaching children French in kindergarten because that’s during some of the most critical time for learning. It’s bad enough the board provides the absolute minimum in education but where does it end? Give teachers incentive to want to teach French so that we don’t have to run into this problem. Shame on the board for doing this. Don’t wonder why the attendance numbers drop if this is approved.
I just heard back from Janet McDougald and this is her response. Basically Peel is just the first of many. If it goes through here – which it looks like it will. The rest of Ontario will eventually follow:
Hello Ms. Ripton,
Thank you for your email. I want to explain again the reasons for the recommendations.
Since you were at the meeting, simply stated, the board has a shortage of qualified teachers, both permanent and occasional… And a shortage of classroom space. For Sept 2013!! The board has known about this emerging issue for a few years and had taken steps to avoid reducing access but we have run out of options. We can not register students without teachers to teach them or a classroom to put them in.
I understand your support of french in a bilingual country but FI is not mandated by the province. It is a choice not a right. And 50% time is the provincial standard for a diploma that includes FI. Our students WILL be admitted to any FI program throughout the province. You can check with the Ministry. Some boards don’t even offer FI and many have different entry points and % of time. I know that most boards are reviewing the delivery of their programs for the exact same reasons we did.
Again, thank you for your comments. I appreciate this is disappointing. I am not happy about reducing access either.
Hopefully at some time in the future, we will be able to open registration to all interested students.
Regards, Janet.
If we have that many students in FI, the problem will surely rectify itself in a few years as all these students graduate. Assuming our current students wish to become teachers, with all the cuts teachers face, there will be an abundance of students with a solid french background to become teachers.
Please check out this article in the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/school-board-grappling-with-french-immersion-demands/article4565587/
If you would like to attend the meeting it is being held tonight (Tuesday Sept 25) at HJA Brown Education Center, 5650 Hurontario St. (SW corner of Hurontario and Matheson).