Policy/Program Memorandum No. 110

Issued under the authority of the Deputy Minister of Education

In the context of NSL implementation, this memorandum clarifies the relationship between NSL programs and FSL programs offered by school boards to students in elementary and secondary schools.

School boards are encouraged to offer the NSL program if fifteen or more students want NSL instruction and a qualified NSL teacher is available. School boards may offer the program for fewer than fifteen students, after considering the feasibility and cost of the program.

The NSL program must be based on the curriculum guideline Native Languages, Part A: Policy and Program Considerations, 1987, which provides direction for the organization of courses of study for a Native language in the Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Divisions. It is recommended that school boards design their NSL program in such a way that students may enter it at one of four entry points - the beginning of the Primary Division, the beginning of the Junior Division, Grade 7, or Grade 9. Instruction in the Native language is to be offered during the school day.

Students must receive French instruction in every year from Grades 4 to 8 and must accumulate a minimum of 600 hours of French instruction by the end of Grade 8, as outlined in Policy/Program Memorandum No. 58. However, students are to be exempted from FSL if their parents or guardians feel, after consultation with the principal, that it is in their best interests not to take FSL. If parents or guardians want their children to take the NSL program and to seek exemption from FSL, exemption is to be granted.

In elementary schools where the parents or guardians want their children to participate in both NSL and FSL, school boards will have to make arrangements to accommodate both language programs. Case studies drawn from schools that are currently offering both NSL and FSL instruction are described in the newsletter Native Languages Monitor that accompanies this memorandum.

Once an instructional sequence in NSL has begun, NSL must be offered to students through to the end of secondary school. Two credits are to be offered in each of the Intermediate and Senior Divisions. Those students who chose to take only NSL in elementary school and who do not wish to take FSL in secondary school may be permitted by their principal to substitute a compulsory credit course for the compulsory credit in FSL, as outlined in OSIS, section 4.10, note (d). For students in secondary school who want the compulsory credit in FSL, as stipulated in OSIS (section 4.10), but who chose to take only NSL in elementary school, principals are encouraged to offer credit courses in Introductory French, as outlined in Policy/Program Memorandum No. 86.