New sources of students for French schools
Ministerial directive on admissions establishes three new categories
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, October 3, 2016
HAY RIVER
The GNWT issued a new directive in August on the admissions policy for the two French-language schools in the NWT, including Ecole Boreale in Hay River.
Despite some changes to allow more students into the schools, the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest stated it is "extremely disappointed" with the new directive, which was issued on Aug. 11 by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
"Despite some improvement, the directive continues to inhibit the growth of our schools," states Simon Cloutier, president of the French school board, in an Aug. 30 news release. "The admissions process is still long and arduous, and discourages parents hoping to enrol their children in our schools."
The directive, which replaces one issued in 2008, opens eligibility to attend a French-language school to non-rights holders who are francophone immigrants, those immigrants who speak neither English nor French, and children whose families have lost the French language back to grandparents.
The French school board stated the directive continues to deny access to those in the francophone community who attained French through immersion or post-secondary programs, and who want to enrol their children in a French first language school.
The department will also not consider applications from non-rights holders if a school's enrolment is 85 per cent of capacity.
The French school board stated it is the only francophone school board of 28 in Canada that does not have the right to manage its admissions.
Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, said the changes to the directive were made after a consultation process and are intended to better support the sustainability and growth of the NWT's French first language community.
"It has opened up streams for non-rights holders to apply to be able to be accepted into the French first language schools that we didn't have before in 2008," she said, referring to the inclusion of francophone immigrants, those immigrants who speak neither French nor English, and people who wish to re-acquire the French language that has been lost in their families.
"The new directive creates three streams that have specific criteria guiding the admission of non-rights holders."
Mueller didn't have an estimate of how many extra students that might mean for Ecole Boreale, which currently has an enrolment of 79 students, and Ecole Allain St-Cyr in Yellowknife.
As for the 85-per-cent ceiling, Mueller said that does not affect francophone students who are clearly rights holders.
It is designed to prevent a free-for-all in which too many people in the additional categories might be admitted to the detriment of rights holders' access to the schools, she said.
