Funding for French on its way
Feds, GNWT sign deal for French

Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 10/99) - NWT French first- language, second-language and immersion education programs will receive more than $1 million a year for the next four years thanks to an agreement between the federal government and the GNWT.

Education, Culture and Employment deputy minister, Mark Cleveland, said the money will be transferred from Heritage Canada to ECE.

ECE will then distribute the money to various education councils.

"It's funding that pays for a range of activities for French language education," Cleveland said.

"It ranges from first language, second language, some core French as well as mentorships, that kind of thing."

The agreement is part of the protocol on the official languages in education that was signed earlier this year by Canadian Heritage and the Council of Ministers in Education Canada.

"The funding will flow to us shortly and we will in turn allocate it to the various programs across the NWT," Cleveland said.

"The funding we receive from Heritage Canada helps to support French first-language programming at Ecole Allain St. Cyr but it also supports our immersion programs in the public system."

Cleveland said the money will go toward salaries and direct program materials such as books or games.

He added the money could also go to summer- language bursaries and language-monitor allowances.

The summer-language bursaries are for students who are in immersion but are looking for an experience in the summer in a place like Quebec where French will be spoken.

"That's happened before so this is just a continuation of that program," Cleveland said.

Cleveland said he could not say how much is currently spent on French education in the NWT because the funding is rolled into the formula allocation for schools and is not separated for French.

"Certainly monies would be held by divisional education councils or district education authorities like in Yellowknife which would be allocated to support the French program but we don't allocate it from the department based on specific subject areas. We base it on per-pupil," he said.

In the NWT, there are 83 students in first-language programming - about 2,800 who take French as a second language and about 550 in immersion programs across the NWT.

The French language funding secured is now guaranteed until the end of the 2002/2003 school year.