and April/80) and first statement on
French Immersion. A summary of the
policies is given below:

PROGRAMME CADRE (elementary)

The main change to the policy for
the French Language Core Curriculum
(Programme Cadre de Frangais) tight-
ens admission requirements. Non-
francophone children may now enrol
only if French immersion at their
grade level is not available in the
school district and only if they have
previously followed an equivalent
program. Thus, non-francophone
students already enrolled in the Prog-
ramme Cadre or previously enrolled
in French immersion may be admit-
ted. Others, including those beginn-
ing kindergarten, are barred from en-
try.

A francophone student is defined
as ‘‘the son or daughter of a franco-
phone parent or guardian (where one
of the spouses or guardians is franco-
phone).” The policy does not give
competence in French as a require-
ment for enrolment. Pre-registration
screening of applicants is not men-
tioned.

The Ministry requires that ‘‘a class
shall be established in all school dis-
tricts where there are 10 francophone
students of elementary school age
whose francophone parents or guard-
ians are resident in the school dis-
trict and have requested enrolment.”
The resulting classes, often multi-
grade, are to be staffed according to
the following formula: 10 students - 1
teacher; 25 students - 2 teachers; 45
students - 3 teachers; 60 students - 4
teachers; over 60 - local district
teacher/student ratio.

The main objective of the Program-
me Cadre is given as offering ‘“‘the
francophone population access to
francophone education in British
Columbia.” French is the language of
instruction for all subjects in all
grades with the exception of English

Language Arts. The curriculum in-
cludes an in-depth cultural content.

Curriculum guides and prescribed
resources are available from the
Ministry. These parallel B.C.’s stan-
dard Core Curriculum for every grade.

Because __ the implementation
and/or expansion of the policy for the
Programme Cadre may create ad-
ditional expense, the Ministry of
Education will assist school districts
with approved costs for teacher
salaries, transportation assistance,
administration, physical space,
library materials and supplementary
materials.

EARLY FRENCH IMMERSION

French immersion is designed
primarily for non-francophone
students. Early Immersion is expec-
ted to provide graduates with ‘‘func-
tional bilingualism.

The new Ministry policy states that
“a class may be established in kin-
dergarten and/or grade 1 in any
school district where there are 20 or
more students of appropriate school
age whose parents or guardians are
resident in the school district and
have requested enrolment. Where
numbers warrant, additional classes
shall be established according to
local school district teacher/student
ratio.”

French is the language of instruc-
tion for all subjects in kindergarten
and grades 1 and 2. English Language
Arts is introduced as a subject in
grade 3. In grades 4 through 7 at least
half of all instruction must be in
French.

While curriculum guides and sup-
portive documents are now available
from the Ministry, prescribed resour-
ces will not be provided through nor-
mal channels until September of
1982.

Funds for any additional costs in-
curred in offering Early Immersion
will be provided for 1981/82 through

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