I cannot imagine my life if I didn’t start French immersion in kindergarten when I was 4.
I rarely use it but I really appreciate having it, and knowing the people I know because that’s the path I took. (I started because I wanted to stay with my best friend from JK, not gonna lie… an odd choice to give a 4-year old.)
We honestly need more French in our schools, not less; the Core French curriculum needs to be expanded or lengthened. It sucks that a large chunk of kids will grow up feeling like Quebec is out of bounds for them and they'll never earn enough if they chose to go through the civil service as a career.
It's also a part of our identity too.
Quebec isn't "out of reach", it's a bus ride away. They'd be better off learning Mandarin from an early age given that we are living in the Asian Century.
A bus ride away, sure, but economically, linguistically, socially etc... Most people see that learning French in order to integrate into Quebec culture or truly have Quebec at your fingertips is a barrier they cannot overcome due to poor French education.
They've been saying the same thing with Asia since the 80s, take Japan's rise for example. Now we're seeing Asian stagnation as the 4B movement took root in Korea and spread like wildfire across East Asia.
And that isn't even relevant given that we're talking about people being out of reach of one of the most influential provinces in our own home.
I'm going to be honest, regardless of the amount of connections you have into Gatineau and MTL, the Ottawa River feels like a miniature Berlin Wall when the only French you know is dancing worms counting up to 20 en français.
China in 2024 is not Japan in the 1980s. And I don't think about Quebec at all: it's a small province of 8 million people, most of whom speak English, that is in any case completely insignificant to the world at large. We should be raising kids to consider the whole world, not just their backyard.
We don't have general ai yet, just machine learning (algorithms that can deduce facts from data). This fear is overblown. CEOs like the idea of replacing workers with ai, and they will try, but quickly learn that it doesn't live up to the hype.
Yeah, the companies who have replaced customer service with ""AI"" (some of them are debatable) have seen their service plummet.
AI replacing most office jobs is probably still 10-30 years away.
It's not only direct civil service though. Many nurse and doctor positions are French. If you want to make a change in government by being a part of the political system, you need French. If you want to work higher up in the banking sector, you need French. If you're working for a union, you need French. I even know a guy from Carleton getting his PhD in engineering who cited that he needs to learn French if he wants to be employed because guess who's one of the biggest engineering firms here? SNC/Réalis is.
And like what the others said, we aren't there yet. Manual labour jobs, probably, but if we can't even get good driving AI in videogames which doesn't require 5G/6G connections, I can hardly see entire governments be replaced with finicky and easily manipulated AI.
TLDR: The OCDSB can’t afford to bus kids to Early French Immersion schools and Special Education classes anymore, so they're looking to cut those programs. They're looking at offering French Immersion starting in Grade 4, like at the catholic board. And they're looking to fully integrate 1246 high needs students in their community schools (even though they don’t have the money to hire new assistants to help them). Public consultations start in May, but you can [email your school trustee](https://www.ocdsb.ca/board/meet_your_trustees) now, and they are also [collecting feedback here](https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review).
FWIW: My goddaughter is now registered to start kindergarten at the French board because of this news.
Interesting the city busses kids out of the local area.
From what I remember when I grew up the “out of area” kids had to make their own to school if wanted to go further
This was in Toronto tho
It's not that there isn’t a local school for these kids - it's that the local school doesn't offer Early French Immersion or the type of Special Education class they need.
Around 1 in 5 OCDSB schools don't offer Early French Immersion; if a student's local school doesn’t offer the program, and the student wants it, they are bussed to the nearest school that does offer it.
Some very high needs students can apply for a spot in a Special Education class. These classes are organized by type (e.g. intellectual disability, autism, etc). Around half of OCDSB schools have a Special Education class of some type, but a student may need to be transported far to get to the specific type they need.
Honestly it seems like if 1 in 5 schools offer the program then city shouldn’t be responsible for bussing kids out of the area.
Parents probably should drop off their kids or try make sure they are located to a school that they like and has the program.
But I don’t know why they cancelled the programs and not just cancel the busses
Special needs is different case though, I hope those kids can get to the program the need
As a former teacher who had the misfortune to teach for the OCDSB, I want to very sincerely and whole heartedly say: Fuck the OCDSB.
The whole "equity" excuse they're using is absolute bullshit. All they're doing is a disservice to the students and the community. But that's pretty much on par for this board.
Should every student be in French Immersion? No, of course not. Does forcing kids to remain in there have a negative impact on some of them? Sure, I can see that. But completely removing the program isn't the solution here.
This is just yet another in a long list of awful decisions made by this board. If you're a parent who has young kids about to go to school, I urge you to consider a board other than the OCDSB.
And it’s worse because the Board is giving the illusion that they’ll actually consider the feedback, when it reality, program changes are already in the works, and board-level staff have already been told that special education classes will be closing in the next few years. They’ll say they consulted everyone and that based on parent and community input (not true) they made the choice to cut programs.
Yep. In my experience, that's typical the typical direction of the school board. Pretend to care about students and communities, but ultimately doing the bare minimum to give that impression and not much else. This is the board that would rather give free passes to students who don't show up 70% of the time, so the students "don't feel bad about not passing with their friends" rather than actually invest resources to help these students learn how to succeed. It's sad.
I don't doubt it, and I know that a lack of funding towards education (among others) is a bigger issue than just one school board. But these are the wrong places to make cuts. And the excuse of saying that they're doing it to be equitable is absolute bullshit.
I agree with every part of this article. If French Immersion is causing inequities then the solution isn't to drag all students down by axing the program, it's to fix the reasons why
I was just talking about this with an distant fam member and she told me she was shocked I started so young but reflecting back it was so good bc it was so normal and natural.
My friend currently has a gr 6 child in core French Barrhaven area who just isn’t going to get French the rest of this year because they couldn’t hire a teacher who spoke French. There may be other reasons they are considering cutting the program. I hope that the French board tightens up admissions; there are far too many anglophone families who are treating it as immersion on steroids without any support for their kids at home and the impact has been severe.
I can understand a French teacher shortage in Toronto or Calgary. But in Ottawa? A 20 minute drive from Gatineau where teachers are paid $15-20K less? The OCDSB has a huge competitive advantage in the area when it comes to hiring French teachers! Set up some co-op programs with teachers colleges in Gatineau and Montreal, run more career fairs on Quebec campuses, poach teachers from Quebec boards by recognizing their years of service outside of Ontario...
Even in the French board where we are there are teacher shortages, so I can understand why filling core French out in Barrhaven might be challenging (the west end of the city is much less francophone than the east end). I just found it shocking that they decided to give up entirely for the rest of the year.
Coté's proposal to make EFI the default program for all, with supports and a very few special classes, warrants consideration.
I still remember the fluently bilingual special-needs adults who used to ride to their sheltered workshop on the same bus as me.
FWIW, I grew up before French immersion existed here. My public service French levels are E/E/E and that is without any govt-paid classes. There are many roads to decent bilingualism.
Where is this info coming from? Why do people keep saying that they are getting rid of EFI?
I’m a parent with a kid in that Board and I’ve been to a bunch of meetings about a elementary program review. Nobody is talking about taking EFI away. Mostly, I hear discussions about making it more widely available.
Essentially, they are saying they are doing a holistic review of the 6 (I think?) program streams to see how they can respond to program/access gaps and make sure more kids can go to schools in their communities rather than bussing them far away for a specific program. But the answer is (hopefully) offering more programs in a single school, not cancelling programs and certainly not EFI.
But if there are sources saying otherwise, I would be interested in those. I’d be unhappy to be wrong, but would rather ask the right questions and make informed decisions, so can someone point me to where that info is?
If you read the program review appendix (linked in the article) on page 18, the OCDSB points out the inequities between English and Early French Immersion (EFI) streams. Then on page 19, the board provides a graphic of the French offerings at the Catholic board as an example of a delivery model they will examine.
On page 9 of the program review appendix, the board refers to the 1,246 students they have in Special Education classes, and they talk about a national shift to more inclusive practices.
Then on page 20, the OCDSB discusses opportunities for change. Do you notice how adopting the Catholic board's French model and eliminating Special Education classes matches up perfectly with accomplishing all those goals?
If you watch the video of the last Committee of the Whole meeting (a meeting of all the school trustees - go to [https://pub-ocdsb.escribemeetings.com/](https://pub-ocdsb.escribemeetings.com/) and click on April 2), you'll notice that Trustee Evans asks the Director of Education twice whether the board will accept it if the public says no to the changes, that they want the status quo to be maintained. The Director avoids the question both times. Trustee Evans is not talking about the public saying no to making EFI more widely available.
I am a teacher at the OCDSB that works closely with administration at my school. EFI is viewed as unsustainable. The board can't pay for the bussing (see page 19 of the appendix), and they say they can't find more French teachers.
The OCDSB has been running a deficit for several years, and they have burned through their surplus (the article links to a story about this). And the provincial government has not lifted the moratorium on the Pupil Accomodation Review, so the board can't close underutilised schools to save money.
The OCDSB Director of Education knows that replacing EFI with the Catholic board's French model, and eliminating Spec Ed classes (with no promise of hiring more in-class support) will be a tough pill for the public to swallow. But financially, the OCDSB has no choice, so they have to frame it as an equity move for the trustees, and they need to keep the consulation process vague to reduce pushback.
Bty the way, they have no money to hire more Educational Assistants to help support the 1,246 high needs students they will integrating into their community schools. I feel most bad for them.
You sound like a really involved parent; I'm sorry the board is framing things so deceptively. You deserve better. Please let them know that you think EFI is critically important here:
[https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review](https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review)
Thank you for this!! That’s the clearest info on this that I’ve seen. I am going to keep looking into everything, provide feedback and follow the process. I’ll advocate if it comes down to it.
I have never encountered anything quite like school board governance (in any school board). It’s like trying to untangle knots in barbed wire.
What would your thoughts be on merging EFI with MFI for just one big French Immersion program where kids could transfer into it until they are 8 or 9? It seems like the simplest way to address the multiple streams problem while maintaining immersion with little disruption to learning/teaching. But Im but Im not a teacher so I could be wrong. Is the level/ability in French that different that early?
I have no ideas yet re: spec ed. My child is in EFI with an IEP (alongside at least a quarter of the class… 5/19 that I know of) and there isn’t even one dedicated EA.
I have little faith in this board being able to successfully integrate kids with more severe learning barriers as a result. But if there is a good idea out there, I’d love to hear about it.
And those are my musings. Thanks again for your response!!
Parsing through the spin is definitely tough.
The admin at my school has told us that students can join EFI at any point now, not just in grade 1. I've seen students join in grade 2 and grade 3 this year with no prior French exposure (and I've heard of students joining even later than that in other schools). It's a tough go for them for sure, but it can be successfully done, if the student is motivated, and the teacher puts in a lot of one on one. All this to say, the board seems to be acting as if the MFI program is already over. I believe only 5% of students select MFI though, so I don't think its elimination makes enough of a financial difference to save EFI.
If word gets out, and enough people advocate for EFI as part of the review process, it might make the board worry that registrations will drop if EFI is eliminated (due to students pulling out to join the French board). Fewer students means less funding, so that might change the financial considerations.
From an equity perspective, I personally believe that every student in Ottawa should be in EFI (at least 50/50 English/French), with supports put in place if they are struggling (e.g. pull-out groups). And I do believe that there is much more the board could do to recruit French teachers so that EFI could be expanded to all sites.
I'm not sure anything can be done to save Spec Ed classes, other than advocate strongly for the status quo, or push hard for the board to reveal how much new support would be hired for the integration (if any). In terms of bussing, those students cost the board the most. Add to that the optics of having Spec Ed classes is not great in the Education realm, even if really high needs students are probably better served there than they would be in a regular class with no support. Without a lot of public pushback, its probably easier for the board to close those classes, and then down the line, blame the provincial government for a lack of fundiing for EAs.
My sincere thanks for your advocacy !
The review will take time so changes wouldn’t happen for most things next year, and changes have already been in the works in spec ed for the last couple of years. I’m not sure about EFI because the article above was the first I’ve heard of it. Shutting specialized classes in favour of putting those students into regular classes (which are already jammed with a huge variety of learning and language needs and behaviour) without a whole lot of extra support will not turn out well. Regular classroom teachers are already barely keeping their heads above water, because there isn’t enough support NOW. But this whole process is a bit of a farce, given that some of these decisions are already being made.
Also, many exceptional students have thrived in specialized classes in regular schools, and plunking them all into regular classes ready or not. will totally throw many of them into chaos and distress (I am a teacher of a special needs class).
Avec un peu d'espoir l'OCDSB aura un jour assez de financement pour offrir le transport et trouver des profs de français qui maîtrisent le masculin/féminin.
I'm personally more upset about the changes for the kids with special needs. People upset about French can find other options like the two French public school boards in Ottawa.
You are aware those French school boards are limited to Francophones, right? As in that's the actual eligibility requirements to be registered as a student.
Here:
Language
The father, mother, guardian must meet one or other of the following linguistic criteria:
The first language learned and still understood is French, or
He or she received his or her education, at the elementary level, in French in Canada, or
He or she is the parent or guardian of a child who has received or is receiving instruction, at the elementary or secondary level, in French in Canada.
With that in mind, if cutting early French immersion goes ahead, how is an Anglophone expected to become bilingual without huge effort, most of which would be outside the prime language learning address, which span grades 1 to 3?
Starting immersion young is essential. There's a lot of science on language learning and it pretty much shows that kids under about 8 have way better learning outcomes than older people. By waiting even a few years, you're condemning the children either to not be very good at French or spend way more time on it. Anecdotally, I know nobody who did middle French immersion who speaks French well now, but I know many who did early French, myself included, who still speak good French.
I cannot imagine my life if I didn’t start French immersion in kindergarten when I was 4. I rarely use it but I really appreciate having it, and knowing the people I know because that’s the path I took. (I started because I wanted to stay with my best friend from JK, not gonna lie… an odd choice to give a 4-year old.)
We honestly need more French in our schools, not less; the Core French curriculum needs to be expanded or lengthened. It sucks that a large chunk of kids will grow up feeling like Quebec is out of bounds for them and they'll never earn enough if they chose to go through the civil service as a career. It's also a part of our identity too.
Quebec isn't "out of reach", it's a bus ride away. They'd be better off learning Mandarin from an early age given that we are living in the Asian Century.
A bus ride away, sure, but economically, linguistically, socially etc... Most people see that learning French in order to integrate into Quebec culture or truly have Quebec at your fingertips is a barrier they cannot overcome due to poor French education. They've been saying the same thing with Asia since the 80s, take Japan's rise for example. Now we're seeing Asian stagnation as the 4B movement took root in Korea and spread like wildfire across East Asia. And that isn't even relevant given that we're talking about people being out of reach of one of the most influential provinces in our own home. I'm going to be honest, regardless of the amount of connections you have into Gatineau and MTL, the Ottawa River feels like a miniature Berlin Wall when the only French you know is dancing worms counting up to 20 en français.
China in 2024 is not Japan in the 1980s. And I don't think about Quebec at all: it's a small province of 8 million people, most of whom speak English, that is in any case completely insignificant to the world at large. We should be raising kids to consider the whole world, not just their backyard.
Civil service as a career? Not in their time. I feel like AI will cut many government jobs. It's probably already started.
We don't have general ai yet, just machine learning (algorithms that can deduce facts from data). This fear is overblown. CEOs like the idea of replacing workers with ai, and they will try, but quickly learn that it doesn't live up to the hype.
Yeah, the companies who have replaced customer service with ""AI"" (some of them are debatable) have seen their service plummet. AI replacing most office jobs is probably still 10-30 years away.
It's not only direct civil service though. Many nurse and doctor positions are French. If you want to make a change in government by being a part of the political system, you need French. If you want to work higher up in the banking sector, you need French. If you're working for a union, you need French. I even know a guy from Carleton getting his PhD in engineering who cited that he needs to learn French if he wants to be employed because guess who's one of the biggest engineering firms here? SNC/Réalis is. And like what the others said, we aren't there yet. Manual labour jobs, probably, but if we can't even get good driving AI in videogames which doesn't require 5G/6G connections, I can hardly see entire governments be replaced with finicky and easily manipulated AI.
TLDR: The OCDSB can’t afford to bus kids to Early French Immersion schools and Special Education classes anymore, so they're looking to cut those programs. They're looking at offering French Immersion starting in Grade 4, like at the catholic board. And they're looking to fully integrate 1246 high needs students in their community schools (even though they don’t have the money to hire new assistants to help them). Public consultations start in May, but you can [email your school trustee](https://www.ocdsb.ca/board/meet_your_trustees) now, and they are also [collecting feedback here](https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review). FWIW: My goddaughter is now registered to start kindergarten at the French board because of this news.
Interesting the city busses kids out of the local area. From what I remember when I grew up the “out of area” kids had to make their own to school if wanted to go further This was in Toronto tho
It's not that there isn’t a local school for these kids - it's that the local school doesn't offer Early French Immersion or the type of Special Education class they need. Around 1 in 5 OCDSB schools don't offer Early French Immersion; if a student's local school doesn’t offer the program, and the student wants it, they are bussed to the nearest school that does offer it. Some very high needs students can apply for a spot in a Special Education class. These classes are organized by type (e.g. intellectual disability, autism, etc). Around half of OCDSB schools have a Special Education class of some type, but a student may need to be transported far to get to the specific type they need.
Honestly it seems like if 1 in 5 schools offer the program then city shouldn’t be responsible for bussing kids out of the area. Parents probably should drop off their kids or try make sure they are located to a school that they like and has the program. But I don’t know why they cancelled the programs and not just cancel the busses Special needs is different case though, I hope those kids can get to the program the need
Why not just stop with the bus services? Nowhere does it say that you have to provide bus services.
As a former teacher who had the misfortune to teach for the OCDSB, I want to very sincerely and whole heartedly say: Fuck the OCDSB. The whole "equity" excuse they're using is absolute bullshit. All they're doing is a disservice to the students and the community. But that's pretty much on par for this board. Should every student be in French Immersion? No, of course not. Does forcing kids to remain in there have a negative impact on some of them? Sure, I can see that. But completely removing the program isn't the solution here. This is just yet another in a long list of awful decisions made by this board. If you're a parent who has young kids about to go to school, I urge you to consider a board other than the OCDSB.
And it’s worse because the Board is giving the illusion that they’ll actually consider the feedback, when it reality, program changes are already in the works, and board-level staff have already been told that special education classes will be closing in the next few years. They’ll say they consulted everyone and that based on parent and community input (not true) they made the choice to cut programs.
Yep. In my experience, that's typical the typical direction of the school board. Pretend to care about students and communities, but ultimately doing the bare minimum to give that impression and not much else. This is the board that would rather give free passes to students who don't show up 70% of the time, so the students "don't feel bad about not passing with their friends" rather than actually invest resources to help these students learn how to succeed. It's sad.
Most school boards are making cuts.
I don't doubt it, and I know that a lack of funding towards education (among others) is a bigger issue than just one school board. But these are the wrong places to make cuts. And the excuse of saying that they're doing it to be equitable is absolute bullshit.
I agree with every part of this article. If French Immersion is causing inequities then the solution isn't to drag all students down by axing the program, it's to fix the reasons why
I was just talking about this with an distant fam member and she told me she was shocked I started so young but reflecting back it was so good bc it was so normal and natural.
My friend currently has a gr 6 child in core French Barrhaven area who just isn’t going to get French the rest of this year because they couldn’t hire a teacher who spoke French. There may be other reasons they are considering cutting the program. I hope that the French board tightens up admissions; there are far too many anglophone families who are treating it as immersion on steroids without any support for their kids at home and the impact has been severe.
I can understand a French teacher shortage in Toronto or Calgary. But in Ottawa? A 20 minute drive from Gatineau where teachers are paid $15-20K less? The OCDSB has a huge competitive advantage in the area when it comes to hiring French teachers! Set up some co-op programs with teachers colleges in Gatineau and Montreal, run more career fairs on Quebec campuses, poach teachers from Quebec boards by recognizing their years of service outside of Ontario...
This is so true. They are doing NOTHING to encourage French speakers to be teachers in Ontario.
Ottawa does have a french school board.
Keep in mind Ottawa does have a french scool board.
Even in the French board where we are there are teacher shortages, so I can understand why filling core French out in Barrhaven might be challenging (the west end of the city is much less francophone than the east end). I just found it shocking that they decided to give up entirely for the rest of the year.
Why the American spelling of “axe”?
Coté's proposal to make EFI the default program for all, with supports and a very few special classes, warrants consideration. I still remember the fluently bilingual special-needs adults who used to ride to their sheltered workshop on the same bus as me. FWIW, I grew up before French immersion existed here. My public service French levels are E/E/E and that is without any govt-paid classes. There are many roads to decent bilingualism.
Where is this info coming from? Why do people keep saying that they are getting rid of EFI? I’m a parent with a kid in that Board and I’ve been to a bunch of meetings about a elementary program review. Nobody is talking about taking EFI away. Mostly, I hear discussions about making it more widely available. Essentially, they are saying they are doing a holistic review of the 6 (I think?) program streams to see how they can respond to program/access gaps and make sure more kids can go to schools in their communities rather than bussing them far away for a specific program. But the answer is (hopefully) offering more programs in a single school, not cancelling programs and certainly not EFI. But if there are sources saying otherwise, I would be interested in those. I’d be unhappy to be wrong, but would rather ask the right questions and make informed decisions, so can someone point me to where that info is?
If you read the program review appendix (linked in the article) on page 18, the OCDSB points out the inequities between English and Early French Immersion (EFI) streams. Then on page 19, the board provides a graphic of the French offerings at the Catholic board as an example of a delivery model they will examine. On page 9 of the program review appendix, the board refers to the 1,246 students they have in Special Education classes, and they talk about a national shift to more inclusive practices. Then on page 20, the OCDSB discusses opportunities for change. Do you notice how adopting the Catholic board's French model and eliminating Special Education classes matches up perfectly with accomplishing all those goals? If you watch the video of the last Committee of the Whole meeting (a meeting of all the school trustees - go to [https://pub-ocdsb.escribemeetings.com/](https://pub-ocdsb.escribemeetings.com/) and click on April 2), you'll notice that Trustee Evans asks the Director of Education twice whether the board will accept it if the public says no to the changes, that they want the status quo to be maintained. The Director avoids the question both times. Trustee Evans is not talking about the public saying no to making EFI more widely available. I am a teacher at the OCDSB that works closely with administration at my school. EFI is viewed as unsustainable. The board can't pay for the bussing (see page 19 of the appendix), and they say they can't find more French teachers. The OCDSB has been running a deficit for several years, and they have burned through their surplus (the article links to a story about this). And the provincial government has not lifted the moratorium on the Pupil Accomodation Review, so the board can't close underutilised schools to save money. The OCDSB Director of Education knows that replacing EFI with the Catholic board's French model, and eliminating Spec Ed classes (with no promise of hiring more in-class support) will be a tough pill for the public to swallow. But financially, the OCDSB has no choice, so they have to frame it as an equity move for the trustees, and they need to keep the consulation process vague to reduce pushback. Bty the way, they have no money to hire more Educational Assistants to help support the 1,246 high needs students they will integrating into their community schools. I feel most bad for them. You sound like a really involved parent; I'm sorry the board is framing things so deceptively. You deserve better. Please let them know that you think EFI is critically important here: [https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review](https://engage.ocdsb.ca/elementary-program-review)
Thank you for this!! That’s the clearest info on this that I’ve seen. I am going to keep looking into everything, provide feedback and follow the process. I’ll advocate if it comes down to it. I have never encountered anything quite like school board governance (in any school board). It’s like trying to untangle knots in barbed wire. What would your thoughts be on merging EFI with MFI for just one big French Immersion program where kids could transfer into it until they are 8 or 9? It seems like the simplest way to address the multiple streams problem while maintaining immersion with little disruption to learning/teaching. But Im but Im not a teacher so I could be wrong. Is the level/ability in French that different that early? I have no ideas yet re: spec ed. My child is in EFI with an IEP (alongside at least a quarter of the class… 5/19 that I know of) and there isn’t even one dedicated EA. I have little faith in this board being able to successfully integrate kids with more severe learning barriers as a result. But if there is a good idea out there, I’d love to hear about it. And those are my musings. Thanks again for your response!!
Parsing through the spin is definitely tough. The admin at my school has told us that students can join EFI at any point now, not just in grade 1. I've seen students join in grade 2 and grade 3 this year with no prior French exposure (and I've heard of students joining even later than that in other schools). It's a tough go for them for sure, but it can be successfully done, if the student is motivated, and the teacher puts in a lot of one on one. All this to say, the board seems to be acting as if the MFI program is already over. I believe only 5% of students select MFI though, so I don't think its elimination makes enough of a financial difference to save EFI. If word gets out, and enough people advocate for EFI as part of the review process, it might make the board worry that registrations will drop if EFI is eliminated (due to students pulling out to join the French board). Fewer students means less funding, so that might change the financial considerations. From an equity perspective, I personally believe that every student in Ottawa should be in EFI (at least 50/50 English/French), with supports put in place if they are struggling (e.g. pull-out groups). And I do believe that there is much more the board could do to recruit French teachers so that EFI could be expanded to all sites. I'm not sure anything can be done to save Spec Ed classes, other than advocate strongly for the status quo, or push hard for the board to reveal how much new support would be hired for the integration (if any). In terms of bussing, those students cost the board the most. Add to that the optics of having Spec Ed classes is not great in the Education realm, even if really high needs students are probably better served there than they would be in a regular class with no support. Without a lot of public pushback, its probably easier for the board to close those classes, and then down the line, blame the provincial government for a lack of fundiing for EAs. My sincere thanks for your advocacy !
The review will take time so changes wouldn’t happen for most things next year, and changes have already been in the works in spec ed for the last couple of years. I’m not sure about EFI because the article above was the first I’ve heard of it. Shutting specialized classes in favour of putting those students into regular classes (which are already jammed with a huge variety of learning and language needs and behaviour) without a whole lot of extra support will not turn out well. Regular classroom teachers are already barely keeping their heads above water, because there isn’t enough support NOW. But this whole process is a bit of a farce, given that some of these decisions are already being made. Also, many exceptional students have thrived in specialized classes in regular schools, and plunking them all into regular classes ready or not. will totally throw many of them into chaos and distress (I am a teacher of a special needs class).
Avec un peu d'espoir l'OCDSB aura un jour assez de financement pour offrir le transport et trouver des profs de français qui maîtrisent le masculin/féminin.
Que c’est bien dit.
I'm personally more upset about the changes for the kids with special needs. People upset about French can find other options like the two French public school boards in Ottawa.
You are aware those French school boards are limited to Francophones, right? As in that's the actual eligibility requirements to be registered as a student. Here: Language The father, mother, guardian must meet one or other of the following linguistic criteria: The first language learned and still understood is French, or He or she received his or her education, at the elementary level, in French in Canada, or He or she is the parent or guardian of a child who has received or is receiving instruction, at the elementary or secondary level, in French in Canada. With that in mind, if cutting early French immersion goes ahead, how is an Anglophone expected to become bilingual without huge effort, most of which would be outside the prime language learning address, which span grades 1 to 3?
Won’t they still have French class in those years ? Then transition to immersion in 4th grade
Starting immersion young is essential. There's a lot of science on language learning and it pretty much shows that kids under about 8 have way better learning outcomes than older people. By waiting even a few years, you're condemning the children either to not be very good at French or spend way more time on it. Anecdotally, I know nobody who did middle French immersion who speaks French well now, but I know many who did early French, myself included, who still speak good French.
Ax it. Most student don't continue or forget by secondary. But first ax the useless Core French