Richmond parents are demanding more distance learning options for French immersion students, according to a new report released today.
French immersion is popular in Richmond, where enrolment has been climbing since 2016 to 2,368 students in the last school year - 11.2 per cent of the entire student body.
However, according to the report by Canadian Parents for French BC & YK, parents are now worried about what COVID-19 might mean for their children's futures in French.
"This pandemic has impacted French immersion families really hard," said Richmond French immersion parent Jhoane Young.
"With district plans coming in very late, we are forced to pull all our three children out of the district's French immersion program and will be temporarily homeschooling through Independent distributed learning.
“As a result, they lose their placement in the district’s French immersion program. We find this to be so unfortunate, but with all the uncertainties surrounding the novel coronavirus, we chose to help flatten the curve by keeping our children homeschooled.”
Since moving to Canada, Young said she has made sure her family fully embrace Canadian values.
“We invested our time and resources, so our children are fluent in English and in French. We gave our children a fighting chance to thrive in our new home by keeping them in French immersion. All this will come to waste because of COVID-19," Young continued.
"I understand this is a challenging time for the Ministry as well, but I am concerned about my children’s future as it stands with their French program. I would like to see the District/Ministry lay out plans for guaranteed placement and an easy return for impacted French immersion kids."
The report released today showed that province-wide French immersion enrolment has been increasing for 22 consecutive years.
"We continue to hear from too many parents upset about the lack of remote learning options, in French, for their children. If school districts can offer remote education in English they should fulfill their obligation to support French immersion as well," said Canadian Parents for French BC & Yukon executive director Glyn Lewis.
