Minority English Language Education Case Study

Facts:

Canada is a bilingual country, where both French and English are recognized as official languages. Most of Canada’s french-speaking peoples live in the province of Quebec, however the language rights of both Francophones living outside of Quebec and Anglophones living within Quebec are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Canadian government has no federal department for education, each province is responsible for the elementary and secondary education of its population, according to Canada's Constitution Act of 1867. The Federal government has set up policies designed to help bilingual groups across Canada, this includes both programs for minority-language education and second-language programs.

The Federal government provides funding for these programs based on mutual agreements that considers the individual needs of each district. Protocol for Agreements is made between the Government of Canada and the Council of Ministers

Because Canada has no federal department for education, each province can only provide the type of education that they can afford. While all provinces and territories maintain competent and proper educational systems, wealthier provinces such as British Columbia or Ontario can produce a higher quality of education. That being said, minority education in many cases takes a back seat to the public educational system. This issue was taken to court in B.C. by the Francophone community, who claimed that their education system was treated differently than that of the public. The supreme court found that the minority school was seriously underfunded, and while the school board were not given all of their