Letter of the day | Opposition remains stuck in the past on FSL
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008
To The Editor: Recently, Conservative MLA Madeleine Dubé made incorrect claims about our French Second Language (FSL) system.
The former Core French program was mandatory from Grades 1 to 10, not Grade 12 as she suggests.
This program was ineffective.
As many as 98 per cent of students failed to attain any competency in French, and research shows that many turned against French because they were unable to learn in the program.
One FSL expert called it "a national disaster." Next, she questions the challenge of streaming, also complaining that it will be delayed, not eliminated.
Streaming is real - formerly, 93 per cent of children with special learning needs were in one class - and 40 years of research proves that it hurts learning for all students. We've addressed that, but a system with optional immersion will contain some streaming.
Experts say that streaming causes the most damage in early grades, where we have eliminated it. Research shows that if children don't learn to read by Grade 3, later intervention programs likely fail. Our program delays streaming to Grade 3 so that all children will have an opportunity to master literacy fundamentals.
She also claims that these changes are prompted by "cost-saving measures." Not true, and she should know better.
Last year we increased the education budget by over seven per cent, far more than any increase under the previous government.
These options increase the quality of FSL programming, ensure that more students have the chance to become bilingual, and will cost $6.2 million over the next five years.
We are very proud of this approach, which strikes a better balance than our earlier proposal.
We are thankful to the hundreds of New Brunswickers who shared their views, and to those who helped build this improved model.
As Dr. Joan Netten, an FSL expert and a former president of Canadian Parents for French, said, this model may become "one of the strongest and most effective immersion programs in Canada." It is disappointing that rather than work to build a better education system, Ms.
Dubé and the Opposition remain in the past, complain about our progress, and offer no alternatives.
Kelly Lamrock, Minister of Education, Fredericton
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You may have increased the budget last year but you made sure that EFI did not get it's fair share.
No one has said that streaming isn't real. I just believe that the supposed "effects" of streaming are being exaggerated. You still have not explained why other provinces can so effectively withstand streaming from their EFI programs nor have you explained why our streamed English system outperforms the French system (which has no streaming).
It sounds like you are trying to congratulate yourself for solving an emergency that never existed.