French immersion enrolment in B.C. public schools may be on the decline, but the Qualicum School District is trending upwards.
The latest numbers compiled by Canadian Parents for French (CPF) show that compared to the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2020), there were 1,902 fewer students in French immersion in B.C. schools in 2023-2024.
The decrease in French immersion enrolment has taken place despite an increase of 28,000 students in B.C. public schools compared to four years ago.
“There has been a small but consistent decline in the number of students enroled in French immersion in public schools in the province over the last four years,” said CPF BC and Yukon President Alex Hughes, in a news release. “It’s not a trend we would expect considering the continued popularity of French immersion and the annual wait lists in a number of school districts.”
The Qualicum School District has experienced a two per cent increase (458 versus 449) in French immersion students compared to previous year and 4.6 per cent increase compared to five years ago (458 versus 438).
Overall enrolment was up 2.2 per cent in the Qualicum School District compared to five years ago (4,470 versus 4,372), although it decreased by 0.9 per cent in the last year.
Slightly more than 10 per cent of students in the Qualicum School District are in French Immersion. The school district offers French Immersion at École Oceanside Elementary and École Ballenas Secondary.
In 2023-2024, the French immersion enrolment rate across B.C public schools was 8.7 per cent, down from nine per cent the year before. The number of French immersion students declined from 52,849 to 52,514.
The proportion of students in French immersion in B.C. has gone below 9 per cent for two straight years, after staying above 9 per cent for the eight years before that, dating back to 2014-2015.
B.C.’s five largest school districts account for combined 63 per cent of the total decline in French immersion students in the four years since 2019-2020.
Vancouver has seen the highest decline in students, with 574 fewer enrolled in French immersion compared to 2019-2020.
Three regions of the province accommodated more French immersion students than the year before. Vancouver Island, the Kootenays, and Skeena North Coast all had more students in French immersion in 2023-2024 than the year before.
Other regions, including the Lower Mainland, Thompson Okanagan, Cariboo/Prince George and the Northeast, saw declines over the last year. Only the Vancouver Island and the Kootenays regions have more students in French Immersion in 2023-2024 than they did five years ago.
Core French enrolments in B.C. have seen continual growth for the ninth consecutive year since 2014-2015. In 2023-2024, the number of students enroled in Core French rose from 189,364 to 193,864. The percentage of students enroled in Core French remained steady at 32.1 per cent.
Numbers used in this report were provided to CPF BC & Yukon by the BC Ministry of Education.
