Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Education Association
Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Education Association (ECBEA) is a non-profit educational society working to promoting the learning of the Chinese language in school along with the regular school curriculum through a bilingual education program located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The program is unique in North America as it exists alongside the regular school curriculum and offers a complete continuum of studies from Kindergarten all the way to High School graduation. The society works in close association with the Edmonton Public Schools. History. ECBEA began as an experimental English-Chinese language program developed in 1982 that  was implemented and introduced by Edmonton Public Schools at the Kindergarten level. The initiative was successful, and in 1983 the association was formally established, along with the English-Chinese Bilingual Program. A new Grade level was introduced subsequently every year after that. In 1989 the public school board approved of the program to be expanded to Junior High level (as an optional course called the Chinese Language Arts program), and finally in 1992 the Senior high levels (which satisfied International Baccalaureate standards for Mandarin Chinese) were approved. The program has since grew from 33 Kindergarten students to over 1800 students  citywide. In 2007, ECBEA celebrated its 25th anniversary. The association. ECBEA is a non-profit and non-partisan organization of volunteers that work to promote the Chinese language. It runs by donations and charities, as it is a registered charitable organization under the Canada Revenue Agency. Members of the ECBEA are mostly parents with children enrolled in the English-Chinese Bilingual/Chinese Language Arts program in the Edmonton Public Schools. Since 2009 ECBEA has hosted an annual award ceremony where awards and scholarships are given to those that have shown excellent results in school, the program or extra-curricular activities  relating to Chinese culture. The association also publishes a newsletter several times annually for distribution through program schools to member families. Purpose. The stated purpose of ECBEA is to: Awards. Throughout the years ECBEA has won awards, especially from the City Of Edmonton. Here is a list of them: Program schools. 14 Edmonton Public schools offer the ECBEA programming, including: Six elementary schools: Four junior high schools: Four senior high schools: