Quebec creating new system to determine English schooling

Following a Quebec court’s ruling that allows students to enrol in English-language public schools, the province’s parliamentary commission is about to draft a new language law to replace its failed Bill 104.

The parliamentary commission will craft a new points-based formula that will determine who can and who cannot attend an English-language public school. Parents would need to prove before a provincial tribunal that their child’s schooling in English would give them an “authentic” education that would otherwise not be gained.

Starting in 2011, children can only be transferred from an unsubsidized English private school to an English public school after three years, creating an economic advantage to parents with the financial resources. Francophones and allophones can opt for English as language of instruction for their children by providing the province with documentation outlining a “parcours scolaire authentique,” or an “authentic scholarly route.”

Currently students are required to take English-as-a-second language classes in elementary school and must satisfy oral and written components by the sixth grade. English is not required beyond the eighth grade.