Anglo CEGEPs are the best
The Journal set out to do its first ranking of CEGEPs and came back with the appalling news that the anglo ones do best with Dawson being especially notable. That post-secondary students want to learn English has Mathieu Bock-Côté’s knickers in a veritable tango.
Tim S. 16:41 on 2020-02-16 Permalink
I worry that, just like in the case of the school boards, the success of the anglo schools will be used as a stick to beat the others, and then eventually justify the launch of some ill-thought out drastic reform.
jeather 17:36 on 2020-02-16 Permalink
It’s also an issue that anglophones who want to go to English schools are shut out because they are limited in how many students they can take in and since it’s mostly grade based, francophones with better grades get the spots. I’m not saying the schools are wrong for doing it based on grades, nor that francophones should not go to or get spots in English cegeps — mostly that probably the English cegeps need to be allowed to expand and that all high schools need to vastly improve second language teaching.
Kevin 17:55 on 2020-02-16 Permalink
If only MBC had some sort of advanced education in sociology so he could understand people and their motives..
Tim 23:11 on 2020-02-16 Permalink
@Jeather, I am leaning towards a French education for my kids because coworkers have told me how competitive it is for English CEGEPs . I think that having a French education will give them the most options as English will be used in the home. My hope is that they will be equally comfortable going to post secondary education in either language.
Ian 08:51 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
If your kid is fluently bilingual it does sound like a pretty easy win to apply for French CEGEP first, especially as once you’re already in a CEGEP it’s a lot easier to transfer into another CEGEP or even another program in another CEGEP.
Another thing worth considering is that everyone assumes that getting a DEC is the only way to go, there are also AEC and DEP programs that are often much shorter than a DEC as they don’t have all the extra requirements a DEC has like like gym courses… some AECs are even tuition-free, although you have to be out of school for one full academic year before you can apply for an AEC program.
jeather 10:35 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
French education so your kids would feel comfortable in post-secondary education in either language? I don’t think you get into an English cegep any more easily from a French high school. It looks like Dawson is separate from the regular SRAM system so you can do both Dawson and at least one other school concurrently. But who knows what will be in a decade.
Tim 10:48 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
it’s about having more options Jeather. Colleagues of mine whose kids have gone through the English system have said that their kids aren’t comfortable enough to take post secondary courses in French. So they are limited to English institutions.
jeather 11:14 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
There are a lot of interesting, complex interrelated reasons. Watching friends of mine choose between the English and French systems and hearing about the other school parents who make the same choices is really interesting.
Filp 16:05 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
Speaking from personal experience, I think it would have made more sense for my parents to send me to the french system for primary and secondary given that I speak English at home, pretty much for the reasons Tim explained. I was actually just having this conversation yesterday. I mean, I ended up just fine and I regret nothing, except for my hilariously sub par french education in the English system. Seriously, those classes were terrible, and now I have to work double time on my grammar.
Kate 16:54 on 2020-02-17 Permalink
Filp, same here. English education, terrible French classes. It’s not the grammar that got me, though – it’s the accent. I’ll never sound 100% like I grew up here, which I did. My dad, who also went to school in English but who learned his French playing in parks in Hochelaga, had a better accent than me.