There are more English and allophone students in Quebec going to French school: OQLF study

Lockers are seen at Marymount Academy International Tuesday, November 17, 2020 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

More students whose mother tongue is English or a language other than English or French are attending French-language schools in Quebec than there were two decades ago, a study by the province's language watchdog found.

Overall, students in French schools increased from 89 to 91 per cent overall in the past decade.

The Office de la langue francais (OQLF) study said there are 1,111,200 pre-school, primary and secondary students in the province. Of those, 76 per cent are French-speaking, and 8 per cent are English.

On the Island of Montreal, there are 249,360 students: 41 per cent are French, 19 per cent are English and 40 per cent reported another first language.

ALLOPHONE STUDENTS LEARNING FRENCH

The OQLF data says that the allophone student population (neither French nor English as a mother tongue) in Quebec has risen from 9 per cent to 16 per cent in the past two decades.

The rise in the province's allophone population comes as the anglophone population remained around eight per cent, while the francophone population dropped from 83 to 76 per cent.

The allophone population, however, is likely to be more proficient in French than they were traditionally, with over nine out of ten students attending a French-speaking school, an increase of over 10 per cent.

The OQLF's study found that the percentage of the allophone population that attends French schools rose from 79 per cent in 2000 to 92 per cent in 2021.

ENGLISH STUDENTS LEARNING FRENCH

The percentage of English-speaking students going to French schools almost doubled from what it was at the turn of the century.

In 2000, around 18 per cent of students with English as their mother tongue went to French schools. In 2021, that number was nearly 32 per cent.

This is despite the fact that just under 10 per cent of Quebec students are eligible to receive instruction in English, including 19 per cent of Montreal's student population.

The number of students eligible to go to English schools has dropped significantly on the Island of Montreal from 27 per cent in 2000.

In Montreal, students in French-speaking schools increased from 74 to 82 per cent between 2000 and 2021.

In Quebec overall, the eligibility number for English schools dropped from 85 to 72 per cent for those with English as a mother tongue and from 21 to 8 per cent for the allophone population.

In the French-speaking population, that number went up from 2.6 to 3 per cent.

The one demographic that saw a sharp increase in English school authorizations was temporary residents.

Between 2011 and 2021, around 22 per cent of temporary residents received authorization to attend English schools; up sharply from the 7.6 per cent who were authorized the decade prior.

For the French-speaking population, the OQLF's study found that the number of French students attending English schools increased slightly from 18,221 (two per cent) in 2000 to 20,560 (2.4 per cent).

It should be noted that the population of Quebec increased by more than 1.2 million in the past two decades.

The Quebec Statistics Institute reported the population at 7,340,269 in 2000 and 8,550,561 in 2021.

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION RISING

More Indigenous students in Quebec are receiving instruction in their language.

The study polled 7,170 Indigenous students and found that 65 per cent of them were receiving instruction in their language, which is up from 59 per cent in 2013.

There are 11 Indigenous nations and 41 communities in Quebec, which make up one per cent of the province's population.