Immersion plan unanimously denounced as Saint John meeting draws large crowd

The Higgs government faced another angry, skeptical crowd Tuesday night as public consultations on its plan to replace French immersion in New Brunswick schools took place in Saint John.

More than 300 people turned out, and all 27 who spoke at the meeting denounced the proposal to implement a new program in time for this fall.

"It should go without saying that reducing French immersion by 50 per cent is not going to improve French," said parent Micah Peterson, who has five children in immersion now and two more he still hopes to enrol.

He said some of his own immersion classmates from his school years are now teaching immersion to his children.

"You think they're going to be able to do that when you cut it in half? It's ridiculous." 

Retired teacher Olivia Donovan of Saint John, who now supervises student teachers for the University of New Brunswick, said the province should use its massive budget surpluses to tackle problems it claims the elimination of immersion will address.

"No. 1, it is never wise to axe one program that is working to fix one that is not," she said. "It is the English prime system that needs help. The immersion program works, and that is backed up with data, all caps."

The government announced in December that it will start phasing out French immersion in September, replacing it at the kindergarten and Grade 1 levels with a program that will see all students spend half their classroom time learning English and half learning French.

That is less French than the current immersion program but more French than what non-immersion students now get.

At last week's consultation in Moncton, an angry crowd forced Department of Education and Early Childhood Development officials to scrap their "world café" meeting format in favour of letting attendees speak at will.

In Saint John on Tuesday, the crowd also heckled organizers and called for an open-microphone session. The facilitators compromised by shortening the world café portion and letting anyone who wanted to speak do so.

The meeting was scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m. but continued until about 9:15 p.m., when no one was left at the microphones.

"I heard a lot of great comments tonight," Education Minister Bill Hogan told reporters. "I heard a lot of great concerns."

Hogan said the province's plan could still change.