In many areas, it is impossible to rent an English video or find an English book in a local library. This is not a complaint, simply a statement of fact. In areas with a high immigrant population, it might be more accurate to speak of EAL, English as another or additional language, because for those students who began life with a first language such as Vietnamese or Albanian, and who attended French schools and learned French as a second language, English is their third language. Meeting the needs of all these students are the challenges ESL specialists have to face. In these boards, ESL courses are mandatory for all students starting in grade four and with the reform in education that is presently underway, the ESL program will begin in grade three.
Children begin, as they do elsewhere, with kindergarten.
After this, comes six years of elementary school and five years of secondary school. After two or three years at the cegep, they either get their diploma and enter the work force or move on to university. A student who has not passed the Secondary IV Ministry ESL exam cannot receive a secondary school diploma, and the student who has not passed the Secondary V ESL exam cannot enter a cegep. Obviously, students must also pass other courses such as French and history to qualify for their diploma. During their cegep years, as part of the qualifications for the cegep diploma, students must pass two ESL courses.