From CEC:
There will be a press briefing at 11, and at 12 a public announcement which will be open to the public. The main event, with Graham and Lamrock, will be at the Centennial Bldg, with public overflow a block away at the Crowne Plaza (Lord Beaverbrook Hotel) being simulcast.
I expect there will be many interested parties in attendance, and I hope as many of you who can attend will.
may be light in the next little while as the latest post-secondary education report has hit the fan.
One thing about the Liberals: they are consistent.
For the latest news, events, updates, and media links on FSL, go to these fine sites:
And be sure to read the new hand-out from CEC, Be bilingual in this place (download PDF). It’s a thing of beauty. Pass it on.
DFWSP™
That is all.
Parents Demand Improved Engagement Process for FSL Program Changes
Saint John (New Brunswick) – Thursday June 19, 2008 – In light of Wednesday’s Ombudsman’s Report, parents in New Brunswick are calling on the government to improve its engagement process with parents and other concerned citizens and expand the timeframe for determining changes to French Second Language programs.
The report released by Ombudsman Bernard Richard was very clear in identifying the serious flaws in the process used by Education Minister Lamrock and his Deputy Minister Kershaw. It highlighted the fact that consultation was insufficient and that Commissioners Croll and Lee “acted unfairly to a good number of those who appeared before them”. Even more disturbingly, the Ombudsman uncovered clear evidence that the Department of Education was working on a plan to phase out Early French Immersion before the final report was even submitted. After the Minister received the report, he led the public to believe that he was considering, however briefly, public opinion. These revelations cast serious doubt on that fact. In keeping with these concerns, the Court of Queen’s Bench last week also ruled that “the decision of the Minister was unfair and unreasonable.”
The Minister has subsequently announced a six week consultation process via the internet, stating that a decision on the French Second Language curriculum in Anglophone schools will be announced on August 5th, four weeks before the 2008-09 school year starts. The Ombudsman has expressed grave concern with this schedule. Parents are also very concerned that this timeframe is unrealistic and will not allow schools to prepare in time for the beginning of the school year.
“We have no faith in the six week process outlined by the Minister, given his conduct as revealed by the Ombudsman’s investigation,” said Bruce Robertson, a parent involved in pushing for change. “What’s more, implementing massive change four weeks from August 5th is completely unrealistic and demonstrates that the government is not serious about listening to new ideas or implementing the best French Second Language system for New Brunswick.”
“We’re calling on the government to put together a committee of experts to review the issues and set a realistic timeframe for implementation,” said Paula Small, one of the parents who submitted an affidavit to the court case. “To retain any credibility on this issue and offer the best chance of meaningful improvement, the government must take the time to review the system properly.”
In order to do this, parents are asking the government to respect the Ombudsman’s recommendations and the court ruling, and support schools in reinstating Early French Immersion for Fall this year. They’re also asking the government to go one step further, and, again following the Ombudsman’s recommendation, reinstate Core French and delay implementing any changes to FSL programming until 2009-10. Parents are not advocating for the status quo, but rather want to ensure that the changes made are the correct ones based on the best available information. Given that the discredited Croll and Lee report did not provide this information, it is imperative that the government takes the appropriate time to gather it.
“At this point in the year, the government needs to promote certainty and stability in the education system,” said Tim Jackson, another parent involved in pushing for change. “Let schools plan with certainty now for the 2008-09 school year and conduct a genuine engagement process which involves experts on inclusion, literacy and FSL. Then decide what an appropriate timeframe for implementation might be.”
For more information on the engagement process the group is asking the government to follow, please see the attached backgrounder.
For more information, please contact:
Bruce Robertson
IMPORTANT: The SJ and area CEL meeting has been postponed due to conflicting commitments for two of the scheduled speakers. Watch this space — or Facebook or here or here — for details of the rescheduled event.
From Citizens for Educational Choice:
The hearing is Wednesday June 4th, 9:30am at the Saint John Provincial Courthouse on Charlotte Street near King’s Square. The hearing is open to the public so we should be sure to fill the court-room.
[from CEC:]
In recent days, Minister Lamrock has been circulating the following text to justify his plans for French education in NB. A team of us from the Citizens for Educational Choice have taken on the task of annotating the Minister’s argument, pointing out errors in fact and argumentation. Although the details are to be found in the following pages, some general points arise repeatedly.
- The Minister misuses French language learning scholarship. For example, his many misrepresentations of the ideas of Dr. Fred Genesee of McGill has resulted in a letter from Dr. Genesee explaining the problems. If the Minister wants the benefit of experts in FSL, he should assign them with the task of devising an FSL plan for the province or, at very least, heed their warnings regarding the Croll and Lee recommendations.
- The Minister seems to persist in misunderstanding the nature of French immersion. In this text he presents it as a challenge that suits higher-achieving students; whereas we understand from the works of Dr. Dicks, Dr. Genesee and others, and from the experience of other provinces such as Nova Scotia, that EFI can be accessible to nearly all children.
- The Minister erroneously argues that the many studies before Croll and Lee support his innovations: they simply do not, and we encourage all to read these reports and determine the truth for themselves. In fact, since the Scraba report of 2002, NB has been encouraged to improve participation and retention in EFI by increasing the resources required to support students within the EFI program.
- The Minister argues weakly against this less disruptive and more standard solution: he claims that it cannot be done because it has not been done or because a fully detailed plan for this approach does not exist.
- The Minister frequently suggests that any report or expert opinion which supports an entry point for French immersion later than the current grade one entry point also lends support to his plan for immersion to begin only in grade 6 because such opinions support a ‘later’ date. We believe that if he were to consult with the authors of these reports, he would find that they consider the grade 6 entry point which he proposes to be quite worse than the grade 2 or grade 3 entry points that some experts advise.
- Finally, in the title of the piece and throughout, the Minister wishes to suggest that the past two months have been a time of ’study’, which should now conclude in a decision. We hope our comments will show that the Minister and Croll and Lee are very far from having studied the topic well, and that the decisions made in haste and ignorance thus far should be delayed so that a true and careful course can be plotted for this important aspect of our province’s public education system.
Below you will find the Minister’s original text in italics and our critique in plain text following each point he makes.
From Citizens for Educational Choice:
Moncton — Citizens for Educational Choice (CEC) is hosting an information session in Moncton, Tuesday May 27th, 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at University de Moncton, Rémi-Rossignol Building, Faculty of Sciences, Room R-221 (on 2nd floor). CEC represents a diverse group of citizens and is comprised of New Brunswickers who disagree with the Graham government’s proposed changes to the French Second Language education model. For more information email Clea Ward at cleapage@hotmail.com.
Be sure to stop by our home on the web and discuss matters with members all over the province in our Forum.Citizens for Educational Choice supports fundamental choice in the provinces educational system and opposes the Liberal government’s intention to remove it.
excellent, excellent commentary in the T-J, “The other side on education.” Very useful for countering Lamrock’s misinformation.
Please help the CEC prevent the government from removing choice in education. By making an anonymous donation now, CEC will be able to continue the legal battle to ensure that our children have the right to access education in the language of their choice. Go here to make a donation.
This is the first cross-provincial call-to-action from “Citizens for Education Choice”, a recently-formed umbrella group that supports fundamental choice in the province’s educational system and opposes the Liberal government’s intention to remove it. Some of us don’t want the EFI experience to be taken from NB’s children; others are sure that gr. 5 Intensive French is not right for their children. We include Francophones concerned about our culture, and immigrants who would like our children to learn a second language. All of us feel that the Liberals have turned their backs on the fundamental practices of civil society as they rush to implement Lamrock’s educational experiment.
Until now, we’ve fought Lamrock’s folly separately: our voices have been heard in letters, phone-ins and marches, but we haven’t coordinated our efforts; our ideas have been exchanged on blogs and comments, bu we haven’t worked together to understand the real issues involved. After a meeting in Sussex this weekend with leaders in this fight from all over the province, we planned to ‘connect the dots’ between our local efforts. This will consist in a number of efforts happening at the same time with coordination from the CEC Council. Of course, CEC-organized efforts don’t have to be the only way we fight Lamrock’s changes — local and personal work matters greatly but we hope that together we can do even more.
Volunteers Needed
Do you have time to distribute documents, or writing skills, or researching, or PR skills? CEC can use these to work for choice, and we’re asking everyone to make small, coordinated efforts in writing editors, contacting politicians, etc.
For instance, will someone come forward to be the one who reminds people when it’s their turn to speak up in the editorials? Who will coordinate efforts to have letters sent in French to the Francophone media?
We also need people to look through the media sources, Hansard, etc. to keep us informed with a daily summary, if possible.
We need to visit local MLAs, Liberal Riding Associations and make sure that the message gets out at PSSCs and that we communicate with parents at daycares.
If you would like to volunteer to do these things, please write Shannon at educational.choice@gmail.com
Issues that Need Study
Are you a research or a writer? We need people to investigate some of the following issues:
- Expose the injustice of the ‘Council of DEC Chairs’ making pronouncements on this issue
- Research the failures of consultation leading up to Croll/Lee, including: That teachers in AEFNB were not formally consulted, while English-speaking persons were
- That the consultative process was inappropriate for the drastic action taken
- The effect of this on rural areas
- The nature of the proposed ‘immersion’ experience, which omits Science and Math What will a typical schedule look like?
- Will the product of this system reach the goals of Lamrock?
- Means of engaging Francophones in this debate
If you would like to help look into one of these and, teachers, you don’t have to put your name to your work — please contact Shannon at educational.choice@gmail.com.
CEC Council going wil see to it that each of these issues is highlighted in a polished and well-timed press release.
Publications
We will soon have a grass-roots document package that can be used to explain the problems in daycares, PSSCs and elsewhere.
Together, let’s convince the government to return to educational choice.
Recent Comments