NWT Education Minister publishes new French school admissions regulations

The NWT Education Minister has announced new admissions rules for French-language schools in the territory.

In a press release Monday, RJ Simpson announced that the new regulations will go into effect immediately for the 2020-21 school year. The release said the regulations were developed in consultation with education authorities such as the French school board of the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest (CSFTNO) in the territory.

School board chairman Simon Cloutier said the new rules are the result of the more collaborative approach that Simpson has brought to the discussion about whether students have the right to attend two French schools in the territory.

“For the first time since 2008, we have carried out real consultations and cooperation with the Minister of Education,” Cloutier said. “Thanks to these consultations, we have a regulation that is much more responsive to the needs of French-speaking schools.”

Simpson’s predecessors, including current Prime Minister Caroline Cochrane, took a more restrictive approach to who could and could not attend French schools, leading to ongoing court battles.

Simpson was not immediately available for an interview.

At the beginning of summer this year Roverturned the government’s position a “restrictive” 2016 ministerial directive on enrollment in French schools and announced that the government would replace it with a new one.

According to the press release, the new regulations include:

• ‘Greater transparency’ of admission eligibility criteria.

• Streamlined administrative process.

• Delegation of responsibility for the recruitment process to the French school board.

• A new “Francophile” admissions category allowing non-rights holder students “whose parents can demonstrate their ability to speak French during the examination.”

A “rights holder” is a person who has access to the constitutionally protected right to education in a minority language under section 23 of the Charter.

“These new regulations will provide education authorities and the public with clarity and certainty regarding the enrollment of French first languages ​​in schools,” Simpson said in a press release.

This message comes as students go back to school and the Department of Education is in a dispute with the courts over its refusal to admit six children to French-speaking NWT schools.

In July, Supreme Court Justice Paul Rouleau ruled in favor of five families with six children and CSFTNO, to re-evaluate the “unreasonable” refusal to admit these students to French schools in Yellowknife and Hay River last summer. In his ruling, Rouleau said the refusal was based on “illogical considerations,” “irrational analysis” and on grounds that do not demonstrate due respect for section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On August 21, Simpson said the government would appeal: questioning the judge’s findings.