Immigrants worried by language education cuts

Some P.E.I. parents worry recent cuts to English and French as an additional language teaching positions will hurt services for newcomer families.

'Why are we making the pie smaller?' — Peter Rukavina, Prince Street Home and School

The Department of Education will cut the number of itinerant EAL/FAL teachers from 18 to 14. The teachers travel from class to class.

The department said it's cutting teachers because fewer students need FAL/EAL services. In 2009 the department increased the number of teachers to deal with a large influx of immigrants.

There are about 830 EAL/FAL students in the P.E.I. school system this year, with about 300 receiving help from the itinerant teachers. The department expects about the same number of EAL/FAL students next year but fewer of them to need help  from itinerant teachers, a drop to between 225 and 250.

Tek Basnet and his family moved to P.E.I. from Nepal in 2010, where they lived in a Bhutanese refugee camp. His children now attend Prince Street School in Charlottetown, where 25 per cent of the population are newcomers.

Basnet said the province should be increasing the number of hours the children can spend with EAL teachers.

"If they get more support from EAL teacher they might learn faster," he said.

Prince Street Home and School president Peter Rukavina said instead of cutting positions, the department should reassign teachers to where they're needed.

"A lot of the talk seems to be about allocation, and numbers are going down and we're going to decide how to divide up the pie," he said.

"I think somebody needs to be focused on the size of the pie and why are we making the pie smaller, and I think we really need to keep the discussion focused on that."

Island schools won't find out which positions will be cut until the fall. The Department of Education said it will restaff positions if required. It will review the situation again in 2014.