Acadian Board to Develop French Curriculum

Nova Scotia's students who study in French will have more optional courses to choose from by the end of a four-year pilot project beginning this September.

During the pilot project, the province's Acadian school board will lead curriculum development for its students. The Department of Education will continue to approve new courses before they are implemented.

"Our goal is to provide more quality courses for students in Acadian schools in a shorter time frame," said Education Minister Jamie Muir. "By concentrating curriculum expertise at the board level, we'll be able to provide Acadian students with as many optional courses as students who study in English."

For the first year of the pilot project, the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (the Acadian board) will create a new process for developing curriculum. A consulting firm will help the board to create this process.

The board will spend the next three years developing and implementing new courses for students who study in French as their first language. The Department will monitor curriculum development and approve courses to ensure students get a quality education.

"With this new approach, we'll be more efficient as we will have the same people developing the curriculum and training our teachers on how to implement the programs," said Ken Gaudet, chair of the school board. "This makes sense for our board because we have a small number of students and teachers."

The Acadian school board will have about 4,200 of the 147,400 students expected to be enrolled in Nova Scotia schools in the upcoming school year. The province's English school boards, which are considerably larger, will continue to implement curriculum developed by the Department.

Acadian parents were consulted about the change through the Fédération des parents acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse.

"Our children are getting a quality education in French in all the necessary subjects for graduation," said Richard Laurin, acting president of the federation. "This pilot project takes the next step to provide them with all the optional courses designed to meet our children's specific needs."

Nova Scotia's Minister of Acadian affairs, Chris d'Entremont, said the move will help strengthen Acadian culture in the province.

"A cornerstone of any culture is the education of its young people," said Mr. d'Entremont. "Being able to offer more courses in their own language can only be encouraging and helpful to our students."

Teachers from two school boards are currently seconded to the Department to develop French curriculum. They will have input into the new process of course development during the first year of the pilot project. They will then have the option of joining the Acadian school board to work on curriculum or returning to their former positions with their school board.

The new structure and process will be evaluated annually during the pilot project. After four years, a decision will be made whether the board will continue to develop curriculum.

French language education in Nova Scotia is financially supported through federal-provincial Official Languages Education (OLE) agreements between the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Education. Pending the renewal of a new Protocol on Official Languages in Education, the first year of this pilot project will be cost-shared under the Canada-Nova Scotia Provisional Arrangements for 2003-04.

The Department will continue to develop curriculum for students who study French as a second language.

The Department has been operating a provincial resource centre for French teachers located at Université Sainte-Anne-Collège de l'Acadie. The university had formerly operated the centre and will now resume its operation.