April 18, 2009

Vancouver - Canadian Parents for French - BC & Yukon Branch is celebrating an unparallel eleventh year of growth for French Immersion enrolment in British Columbia, according to a summary of key information for 2008/2009 released by the BC Ministry of Education last week.

42, 474 students in public schools are enrolled in French Immersion programs across BC this school year. This represents an increasof 1,472 students over the previous year or 3.47%, well in line with previous years. This substantial increase in enrolment took place while overall enrolment in the public school system dropped. French Immersion students now account for 7.3% of the total public school enrolment, a .3% increase over last year.

Other data include: French Immersion students represent 14% of district students in Victoria, the highest percentage in the province. Bulkley Valley French Immersion students had the greatest percentage increase over last year at 15.79%. Richmond posted the greatest absolute increase with 279 students or 1.2%.

Table 1 - French Immersion- Enrolment Statistics 2008/2009 - BC Public Schools

"More and more parents keep on choosing French Immersion for their children. Why? Because French Immersion programs have proven their educational value over the past thirty years in BC,” declares CPF BC & Yukon President Debra Pool of Vernon, “in a global economy, the value of learning a second language is more apparent than ever before.”

"The continued growth and success of French Immersion programs in a period of declining enrolment brings with it a number of challenges such as recruiting and training a sufficient number of teachers or ensuring that there are enough French language resources for students,” says Pool, “CPF will be collaborating with other stakeholders to address these challenges as it work towards a long term goal of province wide legislated guaranteed access to French Immersion in British Columbia.”

Canadian Parents for French-BC & Yukon is a non-governmental, parent-led organization promoting French-second-language educational and cultural learning opportunities for youth. With almost 10,000 members, the BC & Yukon branch is by far the largest in Canada.

The summary of key information for 2008/2009 may be downloaded from the British Columbia Ministry of Education website (http://www.gov.bc.ca/bced/). For more information, please contact:

Robert Rothon
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Toll free: 1-866-257-7970 BC & Yukon

Attached: Summary of Key Information 2008/2009 (excerpt)
Source: British Columbia Ministry of Education

Attachments:

2008 09 enrolment figures for FI 09 april 21 ENG.pdf	[ ]	43 Kb
ski09.pdf	[ ]	714 Kb