"How can student recruitment and retention be improved in Francophone schools?"

Members of the Association canadienne d’éducation de langue française, it is my great pleasure to have been invited by you to discuss two subjects which are very important to me: education and the French language.

After the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, asked me, on April 25, 2001, to develop an action plan to revitalize the federal official languages policy, I stated very quickly that my priority would be education. I emphasized it to the point that some began to fear the Action Plan would focus only on education.

As you know, the $751-million, five-year Action Plan for Official Languages, announced by the Prime Minister on March 12, 2003, is based on education but goes beyond. Entitled "The Next Act: New Momentum for Canada’s Linguistic Duality," it provides for a whole series of measures that will help official-language communities in their development and will give them better access to public services in their language, particularly in the fields of health, early childhood development, and justice. The Action Plan is also intended to make the federal public service exemplary in three areas: delivery of federal services to Canadians in both official languages, participation of English- and French-speaking Canadians in the federal administration, and use of both languages in the workplace. Finally, the Plan includes an accountability and coordination framework that will be an ongoing reminder to ministers and their officials of the priority accorded to linguistic duality. This accountability framework is designed notably to ensure that the Government of Canada is more attuned to organizations such as yours.

Of course, today you have asked me to speak about the education component of the Plan. But we need to keep in mind that this is, in fact, a part of a plan, and that each of the measures in that plan, be they for health services, the public service or any other field, will help to achieve our objectives in education. French has no future if it is spoken only in the classroom. We need to enhance the vitality of the Francophone community, its cultural and economic development. The more children play with their friends in French, are cared for in French, and see their parents work in French, the more they will be motivated to study in French. It is all connected.

In his invitation, your president, Mr. Gérald Boudreau, suggested that my presentation focus on a specific objective of the Action Plan which pertains to the retention of students in French schools. According to the 2001 Census, the proportion of eligible students enrolled in Francophone schools was 68%. The objective in our Plan is to bring that proportion up to 80% in ten years’ time. I am going to tell you how I think we can meet that objective. Naturally, the first condition for success is the full commitment of people like you, teachers, parents and school principals, who know better than anyone what needs to be done to attract our youth to French schools.

1. The challenges facing us

In 1986, the proportion of eligible students in Francophone schools was 56%. In 2001, it was 68%. So we have achieved an increase of 12 percentage points in 15 years. Our objective is to raise that percentage by another ten points in ten years, to reach the much sought 80% threshold.

This objective, realistic but difficult to attain, will require the collaboration of all. I would first like to mention the main difficulty facing us: the weak knowledge of French these children have. The vast majority of them come from families where one parent does not have French as a mother tongue and often does not speak the language.

The situation is further complicated in that the objective consists not only of attracting those children to our French schools, but of retaining them – as well as those already enrolled since many give up along the way. According to a study by Angéline Martel, Professor of sociolinguistics and language teaching at the Télé-université,¹ there are three key stages in particular where students are at risk of leaving French school: initially between Grade 1 and Grade 2, when parents change their minds after giving French school a try for one or two years; then between Grade 8 and Grade 9, at the transition to high school; and finally between Grade 11 and Grade 12, when young people or their parents see post-secondary studies or entry into the labour force fast approaching.

To staunch the haemorrhaging, we need schools that not only welcome students who require special help in French, but schools that are high performers, ensuring each and every student a quality of education at least equivalent to that of the majority. In other words, to increase the quantity, we must also enhance the quality, and help both those who do not know how to walk and those who are ready to run marathons. This is quite a challenge, especially if we take into account that recent standardized testing has shown that Francophone minority students are weaker than the Canadian average in reading and writing.

Indeed, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study found that, in reading, Francophone students from all provinces outside Quebec generally performed below the Canadian average, compared with their Quebec counterparts and the Anglophone majority in their province. In the sciences, scores were significantly higher in the English system in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba.

Enhancing the attraction and quality of our schools will not be easy in a context marked by a shortage of qualified teachers, insufficient high-quality teaching resources, as well as the absence of economies of scale owing to the small number of students, especially at the high-school level, and their geographic dispersion. In particular, the growing shortage of qualified teachers is becoming a major issue for the future of minority-language education. According to the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, schools located in Francophone communities outside Quebec are those most likely to be affected by the teacher shortage in Canada over the coming years: at least 44% of school districts are already experiencing a shortage of qualified applicants for teaching positions in the current academic year.

2. What to do?

Facing these difficulties, the Action Plan will deploy initiatives on five fronts.

First, we need to develop the means to intervene even before school-age. In effect, measures are required which entail early intervention with eligible preschool children and their parents. Research indicates the vital importance of the first five years in the life of a child and has focussed attention on programs which support early childhood development. Francophone communities have called for more assistance for parents with children at the preschool level, because from the moment a child is born, parents must think about the choice of the language of instruction. As indicated by the Commission nationale des parents francophones in its national early childhood development support plan, "it is important to interest parents very early in the Francophone system, since the birth of a child, particularly the first, marks a moment of long-term determining choices with regard to family life. For those in minority communities, it represents the window of opportunity for providing active support and services in French."² We also need information campaigns and local recruitment as well as support measures for parents.

Second, and this is an essential element, we need to make our schools more accessible. When the English school is right next door and the French school entails a long, tiring bus ride, many parents and students opt for the English school.

Third, we need to enhance the quality of our schools. We need attractive and modern programming and extracurricular activities, adapt teaching methods and tools, sufficient numbers of qualified teachers, specialized educational services to meet the specific challenges of minority-language education, and innovative solutions for the challenges of secondary schools. It will be particularly important to enhance support for teaching with remedial instruction for students, initiatives for language upgrading, etc.

Fourth, it is important for our educational institutions to be not only places of learning, but also places for cultural activities and community gatherings. In 2002, there were 19 Centres scolaires et communautaires serving approximately 4,500 students. These school community centres are a crucial focal point for communities, particularly those with small Francophone populations which generally have limited access to French-language services. Numerous studies have pointed to the effectiveness of community development strategies that have been built around the role of the school. As Angéline Martel has noted: "The school serves as a community centre, and viewing it in this way encourages the parents of the target population to give it their support. It must be sustained by a feeling of belonging to the community and a desire to contribute to it in return. Future community development strategies must not neglect the role of the school but follow the example of the school-community centres that have already given new life to a number of minority communities throughout the country."³

It goes without saying that, in developing this inclusive and community-oriented character, a school must also welcome Anglophones who have a taste for French⁴. An inclusive school environment must at the very least be extended to Anglophone parents of children with rights by virtue of Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Fifth, we need to significantly increase the number of young people from minority Francophone communities who pursue post-secondary studies in their mother tongue by consolidating and expanding Francophone post-secondary programs and institutions; developing and expanding distance education; creating satellite training sites in the minority language at majority-language colleges and universities; and creating incentives to pursue post-secondary studies in French (grants to promote mobility, etc.). Students and parents are more likely to choose the minority school system or stay in the Francophone system if they can pursue their post-secondary studies in French. Thus, according to a study released by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in January 1999, more parents in Sudbury have chosen to enroll their children in a French-language school since Collège Boréal opened.

3. The Plan also means money

So what we need to do is to view education as a continuum: family literacy, daycare, pre-school, primary and secondary school and post-secondary education. But, to act effectively on all these fronts, we need more money. Prior to the Action Plan, minority-language education represented the principal commitment of the Government of Canada’s official languages program ($152.9 million in 2000-2001) and today it is the element in the Action Plan for which the largest new investments are being made ($209 million over five years).

But the Action Plan does not just provide more money. It foresees a new way of using that money to strengthen the partnership among the Government of Canada, the provinces, the education sector, parents, students and communities. In effect, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Sheila Copps, will not only renew the protocol and the federal-provincial-territorial agreements under the Official Languages in Education Program at current funding levels, she will ensure that the agreements are accompanied by action plans that will set out objectives and desired outcomes. The Minister will also be increasing the budgets of two related programs, for official language monitors and summer bursaries ($35.5 million more in all by 2007-2008).

Moreover, and above all, the Action Plan creates a new fund for minority-language education. This fund will operate on a project basis, that is to say that, together with ministries of education, Canadian Heritage will fund measures accompanied by clear objectives and outlining specific results. Naturally, a project will have more of a chance to be funded if it receives strong community support or is strongly recommended by the education and research communities.

Given that Ms. Copps plans to wrap up the negotiations with the provinces and territories within a reasonable period, I strongly advise you to select the projects most important to you and promote them to Canadian Heritage and your education ministry. Your governments want to get it right: it is important to them to choose the best projects. To do that, they need your help.

Conclusion

Can we really manage to have eight out of ten eligible students enrolled in Francophone schools in ten years’ time? I believe we can, despite the challenges that I have mentioned.

My optimism is based on the great progress we have made in recent decades. Consider that there were no French schools in one half of the provinces in 1982, and that, even in 1990, French-language minorities managed their own schools only in New Brunswick (and only to a limited extent in Ontario). Today, there are 150,000 students in 674 Francophone schools, as well as a network of 19 Francophone colleges and universities outside Quebec.

You will also understand that, as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, I am delighted with the exemplary collaboration which has characterized, for over 30 years, the relationship we have with the provincial and territorial governments in the education field with respect to minority language.

My optimism is also driven by the experience that we have acquired over the years. We have a better understanding of what works and what does not. We are better positioned to make optimal investments, to choose the best projects. I am convinced we will be able to make the breakthroughs needed on the five fronts I have identified: preschool, school proximity, quality of teaching, the unifying and inclusive character of our schools, and access to French-language post-secondary education.

So, help us to help you: mobilize yourselves to choose the best projects, for your school, your community, your province, and the cause of French in Canada.

1. Angéline Martel, Rights, Schools and Communities in Minority Contexts: 1986-2002 (Ottawa: Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 2001).
2. Commission nationale des parents francophones, Plan national d’appui B la petite enfance (unpublished: January 2002). See also: Rodrigue Landry, "Pour une pédagogie actualisante et communautarisante en milieu minoritaire francophone," Actes du colloque pancanadien sur la recherche en éducation en milieu francophone minoritaire : Bilan et prospectives (Moncton: Centre de recherche et de développement en éducation (CRDE) de la Faculté des sciences de l'éducation de l'Université de Moncton, November 2000).
3. Martel, Rights, Schools and Communities, section 4, sub-section "A school at the centre of the community" (Web version). See also: Diane Gérin-Lajoie, "Les partenariats entre l’école et la communauté en milieu francophone minoritaire," Actes du colloque pancanadien sur la recherche en éducation en milieu francophone minoritaire : Bilan et prospectives (Moncton: Centre de recherche et de développement en éducation (CRDE) de la Faculté des sciences de l'éducation de l'Université de Moncton, November 2000).
4. Société franco-manitobaine, De génération en génération : Agrandir l’espace francophone au Manitoba (October 2001), p.2.