MONTREAL - A plan to establish intensive English language courses for French speaking students in grade six appears to have vaulted off the rails.
Quebec's two largest teachers' unions have withdrawn from discussions with the Education Ministry and one board announced that will not implement the courses next school year.
The proposed program was to teach English for half the school year and compress the remainder of the material into the other half year.
The Capital School Board planned to implant the program into 19 schools in the fall, on almost half of its 80 Grade 6 classes, that plan has been iced for at least a year following a meeting with teachers on January 23.
The Autonomous Federation of Teachers (FAE) and the Federation of education unions (FSQ-CSQ) both said that the project is poorly conceived and badly prepared.
FAE President Pierre St-Germain argued that the project represents a serious risk for students with learning difficulties who are already struggling. He said forcing them to assimilate the same material over five months will increase the likelihood of their failure.
He said that students from immigrant families, many of whom are not fluent or speak no French, will be deprived of a long period of learning the language, which may affect their integration into French.
Meanwhile the FSQ-CSQ said that many students have already mastered English and that they won't gain much from the experience.
Its president, Manon Bernard denounced the plan as being insufficiently analyzed. She said she supports the learning of English but believes that learning it full-time is neither realistic or desirable, particularly for students with learning difficulties.
