The New Brunswick government will ultimately not go ahead with its French-language education reform project, which was due to come into effect next fall.
The reform, which has been heavily criticized by the province’s francophone community in recent months, saw drastic measures to reduce the French curriculum for French-immersion students.
It envisaged reducing French lessons from around 90% per day to 50%.
The province’s Secretary of Education and Early Childhood Development, Bill Hogan, admitted his government conducted a case study last month that involved nearly 13,000 New Brunswickers, including 400 teachers, in public consultations. He was able to conclude that this wasn’t the best decision for kindergarten and first graders in the province.
Mr. Hogan now intends to set up a group representing the province’s teachers’ association, education system experts and parents to develop next steps. At the moment, no date has been set for announcing these steps.
According to the minister, despite this setback, reform work still needs to be done to improve French immersion in New Brunswick, which he says falls short of certain standards. He wants to ensure that all graduates have some knowledge of French after high school.