Government to respond to French-language report recommendations

New Brunswick Education Minister Kelly Lamrock will be responding to the recommendations contained in a French-language report on Friday.

The controversial government-commissioned report, which was released in February, recommended the elimination of early French immersion in the province's English schools.

The government announced on Thursday afternoon that Lamrock will outline the government's response to the French second-language commission's recommendations, which will include addressing French programs and services in English schools.

The report recommended that the early immersion, which currently begins in Grade 1, be grandfathered out in favour of a more intensive French program beginning in Grade 5.

Under the proposal, students would get five months of intensive French in Grade 5 and then have the option of either moving into a more extensive version of the current core-French program, which makes the language a mandatory subject in school, or entering a late-immersion program. All French-language schooling would also continue to Grade 12.

Parents and teachers have told CBC News they are anxious to hear if the government will accept the recommendation.

Some parents have argued that it is impossible to decide how to enroll their children in school when they don't know what the system will look like in the fall.

Others have said they don't want to see the elimination of early immersion at all.

The report argued the French programming offered in English schools was not meeting it goals.

The review examined French-language instruction between 1995 and 2006 and found that most of the students graduating from high school were not meeting provincial targets for oral proficiency.

Lamrock has said that if the government decides to implement any of the report's recommendations they could be introduced in the province's school systems by September.