Bilingual schools could address decline in French proficiency

Wednesday 31 July 2024

Three English-French bilingual primary schools could be set up in Jersey, if politicians back a recent proposition.

Deputy Philip Bailhache said that he wants to preserve a "cornerstone of Jersey's cultural being” by promoting bilingual tuition in schools.

He is proposing that three primary schools gradually introduce bilingual teaching from 2025.

In a report accompanying his proposition, the St Clement Deputy said: "Although English is the dominant language in everyday life in Jersey today, it was not so long ago that the majority of educated people were able to speak and write in both English and French.”

Pictured: Deputy Philip Bailhache is proposing that three primary schools gradually introduce English-French bilingual teaching from 2025.

He added: "It is disappointing that few Jersey people can today speak French with any degree of fluency or understand the language of our nearest neighbour.”

The proposition builds on discussions from 2013 between external relations and education departments, which garnered support from various stakeholders, according to the St Clement representative.

Deputy Bailhache said: "The Council of Ministers expressed broad support for the project in 2016, but it did not progress before the 2018 elections.

“A survey of parents was undertaken by the department in 2016 which showed that at least 60% of those surveyed would wish to send their children to a French bilingual school if that option were available.

"Discussions between 2014 and 2017 with French ambassadors, French government ministers and regional representatives in Normandy demonstrated considerable interest, if not excitement, at the prospect of French bilingual schools taking root in an anglophone context in the British Isles."

Deputy Bailhache also spoke about the academic and economic benefits of bilingualism in his report.

Pictured: Cambridge research associate Professor Colin Williams with Ben Spink, head of the Jèrriais service.

This proposal comes just weeks after a leading expert in minority languages suggested that Jersey’s proposed new town primary could be a “dual-language school” teaching pupils in English, and French and Jèrriais.

Professor Colin Williams, senior research associate at St Edmund’s College Cambridge and a member of the Welsh Language Board, said that such schools were good for social cohesion and provided “a very sophisticated approach to language transmission”.

Ben Spink, head of the Jèrriais service, responded with interest to Prof Williams’s suggestion that the new town primary school, which could be built on the former Jersey Gas site off Tunnell Street, might provide the opportunity for such an approach.

"It is a relatively new concept for us," said Mr Spink.

"I first heard about it at a conference and I was intrigued about it then, and I’ve been very glad to learn more about the concept as a result of Colin being here."

Deputy Bailhache's proposition is scheduled for debate on 10 September 2024.