English CEGEPs struggle with new regulations brought in by Bill 96

Wednesday marks the deadline for high school students to apply to Quebec CEGEPs, and administrators at English colleges say they are struggling with new regulations brought in by Quebec's new language law, commonly known as Bill 96.

Wednesday marks the deadline for high school students to apply to Quebec CEGEPs, and administrators at English colleges say they are struggling with new regulations brought in by Quebec's new language law, commonly known as Bill 96.

Under the law, the Quebec government imposed enrolment caps at English-language CEGEPs.

"We go through waves of anger sometimes. We can't believe we're stuck doing this," said Marianopolis College's director general Christian Corno.

As of this fall, students who don't have a document proving they attended English elementary or high school in Quebec will be required to pass a French exam to graduate. CEGEPs were given access to a government database to determine who has to take that test.

"Perhaps, unsurprisingly, that access isn't really working. We were given the access very recently. Using the database is difficult, and full of technical issues. So we're finding ourselves, again, scrambling," said Corno.

That means going through thousands of applications individually, said John Halpin, director general at John Abbott College.

"For one person to put 4,000 permanent codes to figure out if someone is a certificate holder in this day and age is ludicrous," said Halpin.