Families in BC who want their children enrolled in French Immersion are having trouble registering.
Schools in Victoria, Saanich and Sooke are informing parents today whether or not they have been put on a wait-list for the upcoming year.
Glyn Lewis, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Chapter of Canadian Parents for French, says BC school districts have started using a lottery system when the wait-list grows too long.
"Generally what happens, is when the programs are full, and school districts anticipate that they won't have enough spaces to allocate, they use a sort of lottery system to distribute those few remaining French Immersion spaces."
Lewis says this system is unfair, as French Immersion is a life changing educational opportunity that has numerous benefits for children. He says French can be extremely beneficial to their future careers, saying Canadians who speak both official languages earn 10% more and have a 3% lower unemployment rate than Canadians who only speak one language.
He says the school districts need to accommodate the students, as the demand for spaces has been climbing in the past few years. In Victoria, it's expected that 365 kids will be registering for French Immersion this year, which exceeds the available spaces by nearly 200. Lewis says school districts have a few reasons they tend to fall back on as to why not all kids will be accepted when the demand exceeds the supply.
"One argument that they use if physical space. They say that 'we don't have enough space to put these new French Immersion programs.' We generally don't agree with that argument. A school district has to put children somewhere in a school district, whether they are in an English program or a French program. So we really think that comes down to managing space better
"The second argument school districts will use is that they can't find enough French teachers. And we're a little bit more sympathetic to that argument because there has been, historically, a shortage of French teachers all around the province, and it has been getting worse over the last 2, 3 years. Fortunately there has been some initiative by both the Provincial Government and the Federal Government on this in the last couple years, but it's still going to take a few years for us to see more French teachers in our education system."
He says families need to put pressure on their school boards, and get them to recognize there is a need for more spaces in French Immersion programs.