September 12, 2024 • Volume 39, No. 9
Next edition September 21
Public school board reopens French immersion debate
The Orléans Ribfest is on this weekend in the Orléans Fesitval Plaza on Centrum Blvd. Besides delicious BBQ, there will be several poutine vendors on hand to help satisfy your taste buds. FILE PHOTO
By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star The Ottawa Carleton District School Board has reopened the debate about the delivery of French language instruction and educating special needs students in a sweeping review of its elementary program. The review was launched last spring and is the first major attempt to look at how the board is serving its students and families since the former Carleton and Ottawa boards of education were amalgamated in 1998. The main goal of the review is to find ways to allow students to attend their program of choice at their neighbourhood school rather than have to attend a school outside their neighbourhood based on what program or stream they enter. The most common example of the latter is French immersion. For instance, not every
school offers Early French Immersion (EFI), which provides a 50/50 split between English and French instruction, beginning in junior kindergarten. This means that parents who wish their children be enrolled in French Immersion must send them to a school outside their area. During the first phase of the program review last spring, parents and teachers were invited to compete a survey on how things could be improved. The answers the board received are all over the map, with some respondents wanting to increase access to EFI, and others wanting to do away with it altogether in favour of the Middle French Immersion program, which begins at Grade 4, in order to give students a stronger base in math and science in their mother tongue. As an example, some respondents felt that not enough resources were being allocated to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2