English CEGEPs to be limited forever
Bill 96 hit a snag this week in committee when it was determined that the PQ hope of making it impossible to attend English-language CEGEP unless you already had the acquired right to go to school in English was scotched by the CAQ. However, there’s a silver lining, in that the law will be written to limit places at English CEGEPs forever. It doesn’t matter how much the population grows in future, only 30,834 students will be allowed to go to English CEGEP, forever and ever. Dawson won’t need to be enlarged, and no new money will be wasted on educating kids in English, which is obviously a dead language.
In addition, even the kids at anglo CEGEPs will have to take some of their courses in French.
JaneyB 10:51 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
Infuriating. Also, it would be nice to see the Franco CEGEPs actually improve the quality of education in their schools instead of hobbling the Anglo ones.
paulg 15:07 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
At least I can be content in knowing that my son will be prioritized to go to an English CEGEP with the top francophone students, which will increase the quality of education for all. It is like a free private school.
Thanks Quebec!
Meezly 15:10 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
Petition in support of the expansion of Dawson College
English: https://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/exprimez-votre-opinion/petition/Petition-9477/index.html
French: https://www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/exprimez-votre-opinion/petition/Petition-9477/index.html
Phil M 16:11 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
Those three mandatory French courses in English CEGEPs better be French, gym, and gym.
Joey 16:18 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
@Phil disagree – as a working Montreal anglo product of the English school system (including Dawson! Love Dawson!), I wish I had access to more and better classes taught in French. Anyway, CEGEP gym classes are dope. I took golf. What a ridiculous sport/class. The prof was the coach of the men’s national team. We never left the gym. “A walk ruined,” as they say…
Kevin 16:25 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
Which classes in French?
Chemistry? Physics? English literature?
Ideally it’d be three psych classes, because that’s where Parizeau should have dragged the province instead of going to the dentist.
Joey 16:42 on 2022-02-24 Permalink
Anything that would have involved more reading and writing in French. I get that for **reasons** the vast majority of Francophone Quebecers will never earn enough English at a young enough age to be really comfortable living and working in English; I regret that this is the case for most of us anglos – we should be ideal candidates for the most bilingual people on Earth, and yet…
Kevin 10:06 on 2022-02-25 Permalink
@Joey
We are pretty bilingual in this city.
But people who can and do use French in their working lives don’t exclusively use French at home, and that makes a bunch of people upset.
Ian 11:18 on 2022-02-25 Permalink
I’m still trying to find out how this affects continuing education and adult education for English CEGEPs.
Like, if you’re an adult immigrant to Quebec, in an EI funded AEC for retraining, are you allowed to take it in English? Does a certain percentage of the course have to be taught in French now?
It really feels like a lot of the implications haven’t been thought through. Unlike university teachers, CEGEP teachers are employees of the Ministry. We have to sign a declaration as to whether we are willing to teach in French or English, which is really important because unlike a university professor with tenure, if a CEGEP teacher with permanence sees their program close, the Ministry has to find them a job placement or continue to pay their full salary for a few years. Many French speaking teachers claim to only be able to teach in English so that they can’t be forced to relocate outside of Montreal.
Really, the people that suffer most here will be the students – there are a lot of francophone students who go to Abbott because they live in the West Island or of-island to the west- the only French CEGEP in the West Island has a really limited number of programs, for instance there is no graphic design except at Abbott unless you take the ALC at Gérald-Godin but that’s not a professional training program with a stage, it’s pre-university. About a quarter of the students in my day program are francophones that went to French high schools. About 2/3 of my students in Cont Ed classes didn’t go to high school in Canada.
Joey 13:56 on 2022-02-25 Permalink
@Kevin agreed that we are pretty bilingual. But Montreal anglos should be the *most* bilingual people on the planet. And yet I don’t think I know any who are ready, willing and able to work in a completely francophone environment. Having supervisors who were francophone did wonders for my language development.