Spaces for students in Vancouver’s French Immersion programme are still lacking. Rising demand and expectations for French Immersion has not been met by the Vancouver School Board. The problem has persisted for over five years with many parents sitting waiting in lineups, putting their faith in lotteries or shifting to private Catholic schools.

Meanwhile educational facilities review percolate, governments dither, and nothing really gets down.

There are serious problems finding staff to fill the positions that would be needed and there seems to be just as strong opposition to French Immersion programmes as there is demand and support for it. Nonetheless, it doesn’t make sense that more can’t be done to resolve the issue and to make places for students to learn in either official language a reality for all students.

Parents face problems finding French immersion school places | Straight.com

West Side resident Miro Jackanin says he had several reasons for wanting to enroll his five-year-old daughter at L’Ecole Bilingue elementary, one of four French immersion–only public schools in Vancouver.

The Czech-born emigre related that he has been living one and a half blocks away from the school for the past 22 years. According to the father of one, it would have been practical for either him or his wife to walk their daughter, Emily Ann, to the school when she started kindergarten this month.

Like many parents, Jackanin wants his daughter to learn French, one of the country’s two official languages. “I arrived when I was 25 years old,” Jackanin told the Georgia Straight. “I had two jobs and I studied for six years. I’m a model immigrant citizen, the same goes for my wife. Now I want the best for my kid, and some bureaucracy problems aren’t helping it.”