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Education Minister Kelly Lamrock wishes to thank all those who took time to submit comments.

Please note that we will only post submissions from people who have given us explicit consent to do so. We will not post the following:

Submissions received on-line that indicate "Not public" on the web form
Submissions sent direct by email, letter or fax which do not explicitly ask us to post their comments or which divulge personal information about third parties (in order to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act)
Submissions that contain statements considered to be defamatory, libelous, hateful, or of a commercial nature.
Duplicate submissions

Please also note that because each submission must be reviewed in the context of the above, there will normally be a time lag of between 2-3 days between receiving a submission and posting it on the website.

As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 25, 2008, the French Second Language consultation has concluded. Any comments received after that time will not be posted, but will be brought to the Minister's attention.

Improving French Second Language Programming Within a Quality Education System(pdf)

Comments appear in the language received.

I send comments with the hopes that they are not in vain.

I graduated from high school from the LFI program. Although I did English for the first 7 years of my schooling, I dropped grade 12 French for additional English teaching to help with my University requirements. Even though I had the best grammer on my other french course examinations in grade 12, I am now embarrassed to speak French with my neighbours because of my accent and poor fluency. This is why I, like many other parents who completed LFI, have chosen EFI for our children. We know it is better than LFI.

NB has an opportunity to create a unique FSL experience as Kindergarten in taught in English. Why not do intensive French in Kindergarten and maintain the single immersion entry point into grade one? There could not be a less "elitest" approach to the teacing of FSL. Core French opportunites could continue, with additional subjects such as music, physical education, etc.. taught in French to foster onging learning of the language in fun and interactive means.

As I am not an expert in education, I cannot formulate an alternative plan for FSL teaching, but only make suggestions. As a parent and student of LFI, I can tell you that you must follow the recommendations of the experts in the field. Through their experience and knowledge a viable plan can be developed. Your government already has reports at its disposal as well as input from numerous interest groups with excellent ideas.

It is irresponsible to base our children's education on the bised opinions that contradict those of the experts. It is irresponsible to twist data from the reports of experts by taking single phrases out of context and then claiming to have used multiple references. It could be disasterous to create an education system based on theories that have not been proven or even tested.

Learning a second language is enrichment to one's education. Don't rob our children of this opportunity when they would benefit from it the most.

My concerns are from two perspectives, one as a former educational researcher and as a parent. I have masters in Child Studies, and worked with a very talented second language expert (Dr. Sandra Weber)for 6 years. Everything I learned and the research I have read, have pointed to one thing. The earlier a child learns a second language the better their fluency and comprehension. As a child ages it becomes more difficult to learn a second language. So, it seems to me that early french immmersion is essential to young students in a bilingual province. I think instead of changing the system, I think it should be kept. But, I beleive we need to improve it and make it more accessible an option to all children.
As a parent of a 4 year old, who moved back home after many years in Quebec, I am concerned for my son's educational future. We felt secure when we moved back that Early French Immersion would be an option, we hope that does not change. I am the second generation of my Acadian family, that does not speak french. I hope my son does not become a third generation of unilingual Anglophones, with Acadian heritage.
I feel as education expert and a parent that grade 5 is too late to learn french fluently. I hope that the early immmersion program is saved.

My personal opinion, is that Kelly Lamrock has made a huge mistake withdrawing the Early Immersion Program. Instead of eliminating the program totally, it only needs to be fixed.

There are flaws in both the English and French program. Does this mean that English will be taken out of the system next?

One fix for the French program, at least for School District 2 (which I'm a little familiar with as my children attend there), would be for Math to be taught in English. A majority of early immersion students who enter Grade 10, have a lot of difficulties in Math once they hit Grade 10 as it is then taught in English. They have trouble understanding the concepts and vocabulary as it was always taught to them in French. Either keep it in French all the way, or English all the way. Easy as that!

As for the experience of my children, they have all entered grade 1 in French Immersion, and compared to their peers who started grade 1 in English, their reading levels are much higher. My son, in grade 3, was at the reading level of a grade 6 student. My other 2 children had similar results.

Stop messing with the education of our children. They are the ones who suffer in the end. Meet with our educators and find a way to fix this problem.

New Brunswick is bilingual, what chance do our children have to stay in their home province for work (where even to work at McDonald's they prefer you to be bilingual). You will have alot of native New Brunswicker's migrating out of province, just so they can find work.

When my daughter's school called me and told me that EFI was cancelled, I cried!!!!

My son is in EFI, he is in grade 3, and is doing EXCELLENT!!! I only want the best for my childern and them learning french is it!!!! If you feel the need to get rid of the EFI program then you should also fight to change New Brunswick from being a bilingual province.

Have you considered too the fact that some people do move??? In my son's class alone he is losing 8 friends do to postings.We live in a military town. We are not military ourselves, and plan on staying here in New Brunswick.

I pay my taxes and I want BOTH my childern to take EFI, not just one!! So hurry up and realize you made a huge mistake and change this back before it's too late for my daughter!! What's gonna happen is you'll scrap EFI for a year or two then realize us as parents are right. Then where does that leave my daughter?????