French pilot program needs 'improvement,' says minister

The effectiveness of a daily spurt of French instructionwill be tested in a new pilot project infour anglophone schools.

But Education Minister Brian Kenny says the government already knows the program needs work.

Miramichi Rural School, Campobello Island Consolidated School, Riverside Consolidated School and Doaktown Elementary School will provide French instruction for a minimum of 15 minutes a day starting in September.

The curriculum areas that will be taught include "literacy, numeracy, art, music and culture," according to a Department of Education and Early Childhood Development press release.

• 6 more schools to offer early French immersion this fall
• Plenty of questions at Grade 1 French immersion meetings
• French immersion returns to Grade 1 early entry

At a news conference to re-announce the program, Kenny said it was only a pilot and still needs to be improved.

"We've got to improve on that, but we want to have the buy-ins from the communities to start it off and to be able to have that in place," Kenny said at Montgomery Street Elementary School in Fredericton..

Kenny said the pilot will be taught by regular teachers who have a background in French.

Neena Smith, a French immersion teacher at Montgomery Street, wouldn't comment on whether 15 minutes of instruction would beenough to give students any significant education in French.

Help elsewhere for immersion

"They're obviously just going to build on the basics of literacy and go on from there," said Smith.

"I don't feel comfortable saying how it may work."

The government also announced it has hired 15 French immersion"leads," who will work with teachers in the immersion classes.

The leads will be spreadamong the districts with Anglophone North getting two, Anglophone South getting three, and Anglophone West and East getting five each.

The Brian Gallant government announced the return of a Grade 1entry point for French immersion in 2016.

Sixty-eight schools will offer the new program, with seven offering French immersion for the first time.