Governments of Canada and British Columbia provide over $13.5 million to train, recruit, and retain French teachers in British Columbia
Concrete support for French teachers in British Columbia: the governments of Canada and British Columbia announce a major investment in 12 institutions across the province
VANCOUVER, BC, March 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Our two official languages are both an asset and a source of pride for all Canadians. We support and encourage their use, because bilingualism unites us and sets us apart from other places in the world.
Today, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, along with the Honourable Rachna Singh, British Columbia Minister of Education and Child Care, announced more than $13.5 million in funding to help train, recruit, and retain French teachers in British Columbia. The Government of Canada and the Government of British Colombia are each providing $6,793,854 to support initiatives aimed at providing more opportunities for our youth to learn in French.
Specifically, the Government of Canada will be providing $2,095,000 to the Government of British Columbia to facilitate capacity building and cross-governmental collaborations, add seats to French teacher training programs at postsecondary institutions, support the coordination of immigration of French teachers, and improve the French teacher international certification process and teacher workforce data collection.
The Government of British Columbia will be investing $4,708,944 in operational grants for the province's public school districts to support processes tied to recruitment and retention activities and for public universities to support French teacher education programs.
Make a Future, an online provincial education job board, is receiving $3,490,826 to create a recruitment website targeting French-language teachers and to establish a recruitment enhancement fund to issue grants to school districts to conduct specific recruitment and retention activities.
The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (CSF) will receive $1,188,084 to expand its teacher recruitment capacity and take part in the larger provincial workforce marketplace. This investment is allowing the opportunity to enhance French teacher recruitment, integration and retention strategies. With this funding, the CSF developed, among other initiatives, new ongoing recruitment approaches throughout the year to improve the hiring process.
UBC Okanagan will receive $528,190 to take steps to build a long-term presence of French teachers in the B.C. Interior by developing future French teachers' proficiency and confidence to speak French and develop their identity as French teachers, and by providing currently practising French teachers with greater access to professional development. Concretely, this funding will allow, for example, components of the Bachelor of Education to be taught in French and language development support to the students in this program. Initiatives of professional development include the creation of networks among practising teachers of the Interior and mentorship activities for early career teachers.
Financial support of $214,955 will be provided to the University of British Columbia to increase enrollment to the existing French specialization options in the French-Language Teacher Education program (BEd) and redirect generalist teachers with sufficient language proficiency to a new Core French Certificate.
Simon Fraser University (SFU) will receive $513,000 to increase access to a network of professional development experts by providing workshops and resources for teachers working in both French minority language (FML) and French second language (FSL) contexts. SFU will also implement a graduate program in educational leadership and coordinate a provincial network of school administrators in the goal of retaining French-language teachers.
Four provincial anglophone school districts will receive $474,109 to explore innovative and locally adapted means to address the challenges associated with meeting the demand for French immersion teachers, such as hiring an itinerant French teacher.
Canadian Parents for French B.C. will get $227,500 to develop cultural and community programming to work with new French teachers in remote and rural school districts to improve retention rates.
Lastly, British Columbia Language Coordination Association will receive $147,100 to offer professional learning activities to support the development of language leadership capacity across B.C.'s French Immersion and Core French school districts.
By supporting these initiatives, the Government of Canada is reaffirming its commitment to all Francophones and Francophiles who choose to learn, live, and speak in French every day. These programs are key to ensuring the vitality of French everywhere in British Columbia while allowing our children to grow and develop in a country that promotes both our official languages.
Since implementing the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in Minority French-Language Schools and the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in French Immersion and French Second-Language Programs in 2019, Canada has invested $62 million in initiatives to address the teacher shortage across the country.
"The work of our teachers is crucial as they play an essential role in the lives our of children and future generations. That's why we believe it is so important to support them. More than ever, the federal government aims to train, recruit, and retain French teachers, and this funding announcement will help reaching these objectives. It is essential to our collective commitment to build a bilingual Canada and guarantee the vitality of our official-language minority communities."
—The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
"The funding from the Government of Canada will build on the investments our government is making to bring more French-speaking teachers to B.C. and ensure students who want to learn French can do so. We are committed to making sure that students can access learning opportunities that help them thrive, and I am pleased to continue working with our federal partners to ensure those opportunities include French learning."
—The Honourable Rachna Singh, Minister of Education and Child Care
"This funding allows Simon Fraser University to implement innovative services and programs that respond in a tangible way to the critical needs of the French-language school environment. In particular, with the creation of the SFU J'enseigne en français network, we hope to create a collaborative space where all stakeholders—academics, teachers, administrators, pre-service students, Francophone organizations—work together to support French-language education in the province."
—Gino LeBlanc, Director of the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs and practitioner associate professor at the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University
"With funding provided by the government, our volunteers are eager to assist with teacher retention by helping new teachers feel better connected socially and culturally. This work by our volunteers addresses the isolation, loneliness, and unfamiliarity that can cause teachers to consider leaving a community soon after they first arrive."
—Jason Howe, Executive Director, Canadian Parents for French - British Columbia & Yukon Branch
"Education in French is at the very heart of the continued presence and vitality of Francophone communities in British Columbia. This investment in training, recruitment, and retention of French-speaking teachers is key to ensuring that Francophone students are able to access the same high quality of education as their Anglophone peers."
—Marie-Pierre Lavoie, Board Chair, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
"The federal funding supports French-language program coordinators across the province. It creates a network for cooperation and planning to offer professional development to teachers in their school district."
—Isabelle Côté, Director of Communications, British Columbia Language Coordination Association
"Supporting school districts in British Columbia with their recruitment needs is at the core of what Make a Future does. We have been hearing for years that French teacher recruitment is a key need. This federal funding is going a long way towards recruiting and retaining French teachers for our 60 public boards of education in this province—which directly benefits students."
—Andrew Jang, Senior Manager, Strategic Talent Acquisition, Make a Future, BC Public School Employers' Association
"As we work towards building a long-term presence of French teachers in the B.C. Interior, this funding has provided us with the ability to develop and support regional initiatives to promote teaching French as a career, develop future and current French teachers' proficiency and confidence to speak French, and expand access to professional development opportunities."
—Carl Ruest, BEd French Pathways Coordinator at UBC Okanagan School of Education
Simon Fraser University, one of Canada's top 15 research universities, is an institution known across the world for their scholarship and research excellence. SFU is distinguished by the extraordinary variety of educational and learning opportunities they offer to their students, both on campus and in the community. As a result, their students graduate with the skills they need to succeed, contribute to the communities and fulfill their potential.
The Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in our Future calls for $2.7 billion to be invested over five years, including $500 million in new funding to support official-language minority communities and promote bilingualism across the country.
As part of the Action Plan for Official Languages, the Government of Canada is investing $62.6 million over four years to support recruiting and retaining teachers in French-language minority schools as well as in French immersion and French second-language programs.
Budget 2021 includes an investment of $7.6 million over 2 years, beginning in 2022–23, to enhance the funding envelope for the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.
On March 1, 2022, the Government of Canada introduced an enhanced bill promoting the substantive equality of Canada's official languages, in order to adapt the Official Languages Act to a changing society. Among other objectives, the bill aims to address the decline of French in Canada, clarify and strengthen the section of the Official Languages Act dealing with the promotion of official languages, and support official-language minority communities.
Federal funding for these projects is provided through the Official Languages Support Programs, whose overall objective is to enhance the vitality of English- and French-speaking minority communities and promote English and French in Canadian society.
Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages
Action Plan for Official Languages – 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future
Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in Minority French-Language Schools
Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in French Immersion and French Second-Language Programs
Official Languages Support Programs
SOURCE Canadian Heritage
Contacts: For more information (media only), please contact: Marianne Blondin, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, [email protected]; Media Relations: Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected]
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