At a time when people with a political agenda devoted to separating Quebec from Canada are seizing on every opportunity to pit francophones against their anglo fellow Quebecers, the prospect of enhanced co-operation between English and French school boards is a most welcome development.
As reported by Gazette education reporter Brenda Branswell, officials of the French-language Commission scolaire de Montréal and the English Montreal School Board are exploring the possibility of sharing not only a common territory, but space for their respective students under a single roof in some cases.
Both have a problem with space. As it is, the EMSB has a growing surplus of it as a result of declining enrolments. For the CSDM it is the other way around. It has a steadily growing enrolment and is scrambling to find space to house an anticipated influx. (Already the province’s largest board, it expects an additional 10,000 students by 2015.)
The overture to discuss cohabitation came from the French-language board. It apparently sees a real possibility for sharing space with the anglo board in five schools situated in the southeast and Ahuntsic areas of Montreal. According to the CSDM, it needs 400 additional classrooms at the elementary level.
It is admittedly a proposal fraught with complications for all concerned. Parents on both sides of the language divide would likely have worries about the arrangement.
Undoubtedly, there would be logistical difficulties in keeping English and French sections of a school distinct while sharing the same facilities. It is also unpleasant to think of schoolyards with fences to separate the English and French kids.
There would likely be resistance on the francophone side, if not so much from parents as from language purists, about francophone grade schoolers in such proximity to English speakers at such a formative age. After all, there was talk recently of instituting and enforcing a ban on spoken English in the schoolyards of French-language institutions.
Anglophones too would find reason to worry about the arrangement. Some would see cohabitation as the thin edge of a francophone wedge being driven into the English school system, and which might just herald the end of independent English schools.
On the other hand, it could also be the beginning of a new kind of English-French partnership if viewed and practised with open minds all around.
Rather than detracting from one another, it could equally be an enriching arrangement for all concerned, with children experiencing cohabitation in their school days conceivably going on to profitably apply its lessons in adulthood. If there are problems in practice, chances are they will more likely stem from the comportment of the parents than the children involved.
The envisaged cohabitation is something that will have to be carefully planned. Thorough public consultation will be essential to get all concerned onto the same page before any move under a shared roof.
But it is a worthy idea to explore, and one which could, if properly managed, offer rewards greater than the money that could be saved from having to maintain separate buildings.