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Parents pleaded with trustees at Ottawa’s largest school board Tuesday evening to delay controversial changes to the early French immersion program.
About 65 parents attended a committee meeting at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Several parent delegations said public consultations were rushed and they wanted more proof that the proposed changes would benefit students. They worry the popular early French immersion program will be watered down, leading to students who are less proficient in French.
“Ottawa is a bilingual city where French is a necessity,” said parent Stephanie Millius. “Please don’t jeopardize my children’s opportunities.”
Trustees are considering a proposal to increase the amount of English-language instruction in Grades 1 to 3 of the early immersion program: math would be taught in English, and a period of English would be added in Grade 1. Both junior and senior kindergarten would become bilingual, with students studying 50 per cent of the day in French and 50 per cent in English. Parents would no longer have the option of enrolling their children in an English-only kindergarten.
Parents whose children are not yet in school will be surprised that the choice of attending kindergarten in English is gone, several parents told the board.
A voluntary survey of nearly 4,000 parents and staff found most supported the changes, except that a majority of teachers did not agree with bilingual kindergartens.
But for some parents, the more French the better when children are young. “This is an officially bilingual country with an officially bilingual public service,” commented Lindsey Barr, who signed a petition against the changes. “What a disservice to Ottawa students to not receive the language training they will need to compete for nearly any position in the National Capital Region. It is shameful.”
Dawn Fallis, a parent at Robert Bateman Public School, says no compelling arguments have been made for the change. She and others suspect the real reasons are financial, since the board would save about $500,000 a year by cutting some kindergarten classes and gain $2 million a year in increased grants for French-language studying.
Board staff have already agreed to delay the introduction of an hour-long period of English in Grade 1 until 2018.
One of the main points of debate is whether adding more English will create students with less proficiency in French. A board report says there’s no reason to expect that will happen, since there is evidence that students who start French immersion in Grade 4 end up as proficient in French as the kids who started early immersion in SK. Parents cite their own studies, and argue that the best results are when French immersion is early, intense and lengthy.
Other parents worry that kindergarten students in bilingual classes will have too many teachers. The “play-based” learning approach will be harder to employ when kids are required to speak French half the time, says parent Paul Steeves.
The board argues that an early blast of French for all students will make immersion more attractive to groups that are less likely to enrol in it: boys, kids who have special needs, and children from lower socio-economic groups or whose first language isn’t English.
查看原文...
About 65 parents attended a committee meeting at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Several parent delegations said public consultations were rushed and they wanted more proof that the proposed changes would benefit students. They worry the popular early French immersion program will be watered down, leading to students who are less proficient in French.
“Ottawa is a bilingual city where French is a necessity,” said parent Stephanie Millius. “Please don’t jeopardize my children’s opportunities.”
Trustees are considering a proposal to increase the amount of English-language instruction in Grades 1 to 3 of the early immersion program: math would be taught in English, and a period of English would be added in Grade 1. Both junior and senior kindergarten would become bilingual, with students studying 50 per cent of the day in French and 50 per cent in English. Parents would no longer have the option of enrolling their children in an English-only kindergarten.
Parents whose children are not yet in school will be surprised that the choice of attending kindergarten in English is gone, several parents told the board.
A voluntary survey of nearly 4,000 parents and staff found most supported the changes, except that a majority of teachers did not agree with bilingual kindergartens.
But for some parents, the more French the better when children are young. “This is an officially bilingual country with an officially bilingual public service,” commented Lindsey Barr, who signed a petition against the changes. “What a disservice to Ottawa students to not receive the language training they will need to compete for nearly any position in the National Capital Region. It is shameful.”
Dawn Fallis, a parent at Robert Bateman Public School, says no compelling arguments have been made for the change. She and others suspect the real reasons are financial, since the board would save about $500,000 a year by cutting some kindergarten classes and gain $2 million a year in increased grants for French-language studying.
Board staff have already agreed to delay the introduction of an hour-long period of English in Grade 1 until 2018.
One of the main points of debate is whether adding more English will create students with less proficiency in French. A board report says there’s no reason to expect that will happen, since there is evidence that students who start French immersion in Grade 4 end up as proficient in French as the kids who started early immersion in SK. Parents cite their own studies, and argue that the best results are when French immersion is early, intense and lengthy.
Other parents worry that kindergarten students in bilingual classes will have too many teachers. The “play-based” learning approach will be harder to employ when kids are required to speak French half the time, says parent Paul Steeves.
The board argues that an early blast of French for all students will make immersion more attractive to groups that are less likely to enrol in it: boys, kids who have special needs, and children from lower socio-economic groups or whose first language isn’t English.
查看原文...
