Edmonton Public Schools is looking into whether it should keep or scrap its requirement for second language instruction for its students.<\/p>\n
Division rules currently set out that schools must teach at least one language, such as French, Spanish or others, in addition to English, through grades 4 to 9. The policy also encourages continued second language instruction into Grade 12.<\/p>\n
The rule is currently 20 years old and the review comes as the division faces a space crunch at many schools, and has also added many more students who are English language learners.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Ron Thompson said at a Tuesday board meeting that changing the requirement for language classes could help provide more flexibility.<\/p>\n
He also said with the number of English language learners in the division, it might not make much sense to require another language to be taught on top of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely beneficial that we\u2019re providing second language instruction to our students,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cBut again, our context has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson also stressed that the option to learn a new language within the division isn\u2019t being reconsidered, just the requirement.<\/p>\n
Trustees voted at Tuesday\u2019s meeting to ask administration to develop a report on what engagement objectives for the language policy would look like. That vote came after questions arose from trustees about what was needed for proper engagement on the policy.<\/p>\n
Thompson said that the policy was introduced back when the province was considering mandating French language instruction province-wide. He said Edmonton Public Schools proactively put its own language policy in place.<\/p>\n
The province ended up not moving forward, and as a result, the division currently goes beyond what\u2019s mandated.<\/p>\n
While recognized as one of Canada\u2019s official languages, taking French as a second language is entirely optional for students in Alberta. Instead, divisions can have local policies which make instruction in a second language mandatory, with French classes being common.<\/p>\n
Trustees and administration said this specific policy was not about French instruction, but rather the benefits of any additional language for the division\u2019s students.<\/p>\n
Board chairman Saadiq Sumar said, \u201cthe real question is whether or not this should be a mandatory piece versus something that\u2019s offered to students as an option.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that there are a lot of factors at play, and there are a lot of possible outcomes for where the division could go with its policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really interested to see, if the next recommendation passes, what that engagement piece looks like and what students, families and staff have to say about this,\u201d Sumar said.<\/p>\n
Thompson said if engagement is greenlit by the board, it would likely take place throughout the 2026\/27 school year. Afterwards, the administration would draft a report on its findings to bring back to the board of trustees.<\/p>\n
lnewbigging@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n @liamnewbigging.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/nubigin<\/a><\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton Public Schools is looking into whether it should keep or scrap its requirement for second language instruction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1772,52,18671,18670,18674,18669,18673,18675,18672],"class_list":["post-42736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-david-bloom","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-public-school","tag-english-language-learners","tag-french-language","tag-language-instruction","tag-language-policy","tag-requirement","tag-ron-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}