French education faces struggles in the North
Enrolment rules, cultural realities impede expansion say francophone proponents
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Friday, February 24, 2017
NWT/NUNAVUT
The struggle for access to French education still exists for some in the NWT.
Emmanuel Choquette has some of the materials he needs to construct a boat for a race that L'Ecole des Trois-Soleils, a French-langauge school in Iqaluit, holds at the beginning of the school year. - photo courtesy of L'Ecole des Trois-Soleils
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Bilingualism is within reach for many francophones in Yellowknife and Hay River, but there are other French-speaking students and parents in those communities who are being denied that right, said Simon Cloutier, president of the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest.
Some NWT francophones are not admitted to French-language schools because "they don't conform to the strict admission categories" set out in a 2016 ministerial directive from the GNWT, Cloutier said.
The directive differentiates between "rights-holders" and "non-rights holders" based on how they learned French, their citizenship status and whether they are immigrants.
"For instance, a non-rights holder parent who has attained French through immersion school or other French program would not be able to admit their children to our school," Cloutier explained.
Another GNWT clause that restricts the admission of "non-rights holders" if a French school reaches 85 per cent capacity - which is a greater likelihood due to the addition of junior kindergarten students - is a further hindrance to the growth of French schools, Cloutier said.
The French school board "believes a new category should be added that allows admission to French-speaking anglophone families," Cloutier explained.
"This would allow admission of students who have previously attended French-immersion schools, and students of parents that have attained French through immersion or post-secondary programs."
Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest oversees Ecole Allain St. Cyr in Yellowknife, which is set to undergo renovations, including a new gymnasium, and Ecole Boreale in Hay River. Those schools had a combined 214 students in 2015-2016, according to the NWT Department of Education.
The French school board is committed to having its students become fully functional in French and English and receiving a "quality education" in a "rich cultural environment," said Cloutier.
For those interested in learning French as a second language in NWT schools, students are eligible if the divisional education council offers it.
In some NWT communities, the only second language option is an aboriginal language, according to Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
The NWT Department of Education's statistics show that 1,505 students are enrolled in core French while 833 attend French immersion.
