Fewer spots for French immersion means Vancouver program will start losing money, parent group claims

The loss of nearly one quarter of French immersion spaces for kindergarten students in the upcoming school year will mean less funding from the federal government, according to both the school board and a local parent group.

"That means less activities in the classroom.That means less learning support.That means less resources in the library," said Glyn Lewis, executive director with Canadian Parents for French.

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The Vancouver School Board receives a top-up from the federal government for the incremental costs of providing instruction in French.

The board sees it as a small loss, saying it will lose just over $9,300 in federal funding for cutting nearly one quarter of the available spots.

ButLewis calculates the loss as progressive and believes that in 12 yearsthe school board will be losing annual funding of up to $160,000 per year or a quarter of what it currently receives which, he says, is $640,000.

The changes affect only kindergarten spaces at five schools with each school losing one class and students at higher grades will be able to remain in the French immersion stream.

But, Lewis said the enrolment will continue to fall because five "entry-points" will have been "cut off."

"What happens is all those 135 [students] would've gone to Grade 2, 3, 4, and so on," he said.

"It's significant top-up funding that a cash-strapped school district should not be senselessly turning away," he said."It's a total loss any which way you look at this."

The school board argues it is still not clear how many students will be enrolled in French immersion next year.

"We may have more than this year, or we may not," a district spokesperson said in an email.

There are still 5,350 French immersion students enrolled through out the district.

Parents concerned about future spaces

The news has many parents worried since there are already wait-lists to get into a coveted kindergarten spot in French immersion.

"It's already a very competitive spot to get into.There's already wait-lists. The fact that now there is at least another class worth of children on that wait-list is very frustrating," said Andrea Gesner.

Gesner has one child enrolled inFrench immersion at Trafalgar Elementary School and was hoping her two-year-old would eventually attend the same program.

"We don't know what would happen if our second son would not be able to attend the same school," she said.

Her options would be splitting them up, having her second son attending a different school or to enroll in a different program. Neither would be her ideal choice.

"We wanted both our children to be in French immersion. They have French heritage, and we feel like it's important in this country that has two official languages to speak French," she said.

"I do understand they do have to cut class sizes, I just hope they find a better way to do it," she said.