Quebec scraps Bill 96's 3 French core courses requirement for CEGEP students

Students in English CEGEPs in the province will not be forced to take three core courses in French, as originally proposed, though they would need to take three additional French courses instead, the Quebec government has decided.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government is amending its proposed Bill 96, which aims to overhaul the Charter of the French Language, stepping back from a controversial suggestion initially made by the province's official opposition.

The news was first reported by the French-language newspaper La Presse, and confirmed Tuesday evening by Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, Quebec's minister responsible for the French language.

"There are significant shortcomings with regard to mastery of the common language in the English-speaking network," read a statement obtained by Radio-Canada. "The amendments we plan to table address these shortcomings."

The bill had previously proposed that all students in English-speaking CEGEPs take three of their core courses in French and pass a standard French test to graduate. The requirement had been added at the request of Liberal MNA Hélène David, official opposition critic for the protection of the French language.

However, the Liberal Party later walked back its proposal after facing backlash from English-speaking CEGEPs, which felt the measure would increase students' failure rate, and asked for an amendment to accommodate students who studied in English elementary and high schools.

Despite Jolin-Barrette agreeing to their request, Liberal leader Dominique Anglade said the bill is unacceptable, and her party would vote against it. 

"They finally came to the same conclusion as us when we told them we couldn't let students fail," she said."But it doesn't solve all the problems related to Bill 96."

John McMahon, director general of Vanier College, said the amendment is an improvement to what was initially proposed, his questions about implementation remain unanswered.

"The college system has been pretty uniformly applied across Quebec to both anglophone and francophone colleges for over 50 years, and now, our concern is that two college systems may in fact be created," he said.

The new proposal requires anglophone students to enroll in three French classes, outside their core curriculum, without having to take a final standardized test in that language.

The three French courses will be added to the two French second-language courses that English CEGEP students must already take, for a total of five courses. (CEGEP for students enrolled in the pre-university program usually only lasts four semesters.)

Students who prefer to take the three core classes in French instead will still have that option, if they prefer.

In the coming days, the new amendment will be tabled at the National Assembly, specifying that the compulsory French classes will have to amount to 45 hours and that the grades will count towards students' R-score, which is used for university admissions.