C. Allophones and English Education

Since the introduction of the Charter of the French Language, the fastest-growing segment of the Quebec school system has been students with mother tongue that is neither English nor French. From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, their numbers decreased rather sharply in the English sector, with a corresponding increase over that same period of Allophones in French-language schools, notably in the Montréal area. While Anglophones and Francophones experienced declines in their overall enrolment through much of the 1980s, the numbers of Allophones in Quebec public schools grew substantially. In 1983-84, there were slightly more Allophones enrolled in English public schools than in the French-language sector. By 1991, nearly three-quarters of all Allophones enrolled in Quebec public schools were in the French sector. Indeed, by the late 1990s, the number of mother-tongue-Allophone students surpassed the number of the Anglophones enrolled in Quebec schools. Both in numbers and share, Allophones have had a major impact in the French sector. In addition to a greater-than-100-percent increase in real numbers, the Allophone share in the French-language sector has jumped from 4.2 percent in 1991 to 9 percent in 2002.

These changes to the school system are especially pronounced in Montréal, where the vast majority of the Allophone population is concentrated. In Montréal, the mother-tongue-Allophone student population jumped by about 24 percent over a ten-year period (1991-2001), while the percentage of Francophones dropped by nearly 5 percent.

Since 1998 the English sector benefited from an increase in Allophone enrolments. Connected to this increase is a recent rise in the number of mother-tongue Allophones who hold the right to attend English-language schools, likely attributable to a rise in the number of eligible children in Anglophone-Allophone and/or Allophone-Allophone marriages where at least one partner holds the right. A higher birth rate among some of the groups is likely another factor underlying the recent growth in numbers. Between 1998 and 2002, there was an increase of approximately 13,000 Allophone students in Quebec schools. Over 3,500 (27 percent of the increase) went to English-language schools, while nearly three-quarters went to French-language schools.

Traditionally, very few of those whose mother tongue was neither English nor French and who held the right to go to English-language schools chose to attend French-language institutions. The 1983-87 period saw an increase in the numbers of rights-holder Allophones attending French-language schools (rising from 960 students to 1,371). From then until 1999, the number and share of such persons attending French-language schools has remained rather stable. In the past two years, however, the English-language school system seems to have drawn back a certain number of Allophones eligible for English-language instruction, but who chose to attend French-language schools. In 1983-84, some 32,000 Allophones were eligible for English-language education and about 31,000 (97 percent) exercised their right. Two decades later, over 201,500 Allophones were eligible for English-language schooling and approximately 94 percent exercised their right.

The largest Allophone groups in the English-language school system were generally the longer-established groups of European origin such as Italians, Greeks and Portuguese. Since the 1980s, Quebec has seen a substantial diversification of immigrant source countries and a sizable influx of children of Latin American, Arab and Asian descent. Between 1991 and 2002, the English sector benefited from small increases in enrolment from the children of non-European immigrants, and the single largest source were children having various South Asian mother tongues.

Led by European-origin groups, mother-tongue-Italian students represent by far the dominant Allophone presence in English-language schools. Whereas in 1991 they constituted some 44 percent of all Allophones in the English public sector, in 2002-2003, they represented about 36.1 percent. Over that period, the biggest increase in the share of the Allophone group came from various South Asian linguistic groups, where their cumulative percentage rose from just above one out of ten students in 1991 to about one-fifth of all Allophones in 2002-03. Because of the significant extent to which mother-tongue-Italian students speak English in theirhomes, when the language used at home is the criterion for determining the number of students, the cumulative total of South Asian languages easily surpasses Italian. After English, French and Italian, Tamil is the fourth most frequently spoken language in the home among the student population in the English sector.

While growth of the student population in the English public sector is largely a function of the rising presence of mother-tongue-French students, for the first time in 15 years there has been an increase in the number of Allophone students in the English-language schools. Very few Allophones who are eligible for English-language schooling voluntarily attend French-language schools. A recent increase in Allophone students in the English sector was overwhelmingly concentrated in Montréal, thus giving rise to an increasingly multiracial school composition. This contrasts with the situation outside Montréal, where English schools are characterized by a high degree of cultural duality.

D. Higher Education

As observed, over the past 20 years, enrolment patterns in the province’s English-language elementary and high schools underwent profound transformation. Although there have been no restrictions placed on entry into Quebec’s English-language colleges (known as CEGEPs in both French and English), they too have experienced considerable change in their composition.

The 1990s were characterized by an important decline in the numbers of Quebec students enrolled in CEGEPs, particularly over the 1996-2000 period. The decline in enrolments was especially pronounced among Anglophones and Francophones, as they respectively fell by 21 percent and 13 percent over that decade. In 1991, there were about 19,000 Anglophones enrolled in Quebec CEGEPs, and by 2000 their numbers dropped to approximately 15,000.

Over the course of the 1990s, English sector enrolments were down by about 15 percent and further decreases were avoided because of the relative stability in the numbers of Francophone students in the province’s English-language CEGEPs.

The number of Allophones remained relatively stable, with a decline of only 3 percent over the course of the decade. However, while the French-language institutions benefited from a 15-percent increase in the numbers of Allophones, there was a 15-percent decrease in the number of Allophones in English-language CEGEPs. The rather sizable drop in the number of Anglophones enrolled in English-language CEGEPs over the course of the 1990s meant that by 2000 they no longer constituted the majority of students enrolled in that sector. Whereas in 1991 mother-tongue Anglophones constituted approximately 55 percent of the English-language sector, by 2000, their share had dropped to 49.4 percent. Over the same period, the Francophone share of enrolment in English-language CEGEPs rose from one-fifth to one-quarter of all students.

In 1991, some 43.6 percent of Allophones were enrolled in French-language CEGEPs, and the figure rose to 47.5 percent in 2000. While the real numbers of Allophones in French-language CEGEPs increased by approximately 19 percent during the 1990s, there was a 15 percent decrease in the share of Allophones over that same period in the English sector.

Over the course of the 1990s, on the basis of mother tongue, there was a 20-percent decline in the number of Anglophones enrolled in English-language CEGEPs in Montréal (14,648 in 1991 to 11,574 in 2000). The numbers of Francophones remained relatively stable (3,857 in 1991 to 3,687 in 2000). There was, however, a slight increase in the number of Anglophones enrolled in Montréal’s French-language CEGEPs over that same period.

There are some parallels to be drawn in looking at the composition of elementary and high schools outside Montréal compared with the language backgrounds of students in the province’s CEGEPs in the rest of Quebec. English-language CEGEPs outside Montréal show a drop in non-Francophone enrolments, whereas the Francophone segment of the student population has risen. Table 16 shows that this trend has reached the point where, by 2000, Francophones were more numerous than mother-tongue Anglophones. Those CEGEPs located in the regions are very much dominated by mother-tongue-French students, without which the very viability of the institutions would no doubt be in serious jeopardy. For instance, in the Champlain college in Québec City (Saint-Lawrence campus), the Francophone presence is 80 percent of the total student enrolment. Both in Sherbrooke and Québec City, approximately three-quarters of the students enrolled full-time and part-time in the English-language CEGEPs are mother-tongue Francophones.

The number and share of mother-tongue-French students has surged at all levels of English-language education. By the turn of the century, they represented about one out of five students in English-language educational institutions, and such growth will undoubtedly continue. If the current trends are sustained, by 2006, mother-tongue Francophones will constitute more than one out of five students in the English public elementary and secondary system, one-third of the province’s English-language CEGEPs and one-fourth of the students in English-language universities.

In English-language universities, the share of mother-tongue Francophones has risen from 17.8 percent in 1991 to 20.3 percent in 2000. Allophones increased from approximately one-fifth to one-quarter, and Anglophones dropped from just over 60 percent to approximately 55 percent.