Mont-Tremblant, November 9
Francophone CEGEPs and Colleges: Agents of Change
Speaking Notes Réseau des cégeps et collèges francophones du Canada
Dr. Dyane Adam – Commissioner of Official Languages
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Hello everyone,
It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here with you. I feel quite at home because I too had the opportunity to work in post-secondary education. We all know just how important this field is for young and not-so-young people and Canadian society in general.
I was even more pleased to accept your invitation given that we are working towards a common goal. Even though I left the classroom in order to monitor compliance with the Official Languages Act, I remain, as you do, very interested in the development of people and communities.
In certain respects our responsibilities are geared toward the same goals. We all know that for any community to thrive, its members must be able to learn and live in the language of their choice.
To illustrate my point, allow me to use the pin of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. It symbolizes Canada's social fabric and illustrates the great objective to which we can all contribute.
We want to strengthen the ties between Canadian citizens who speak English or French and who have diverse ethnocultural origins.
Wearing this pin signifies a commitment to fostering harmonious human relations between the English-speaking and French-speaking components of Canadian society. It also signifies support for the work of the Office of the Commissioner.
As Commissioner of Official Languages, my role is not limited to being the guardian of the Act. I am also an agent of change who acts on Canada's social fabric.
In this way, our roles are related. To a certain extent I am involved in education by fostering awareness among our society and our leaders of the importance of having healthy communities. Education helps to throw off old habits to make room for something new and more enriching.
Is this not your role as leaders in your educational institutions? You too are agents of change. You too change your society. The people that you are shaping will be tomorrow's leaders. The knowledge that you transmit changes attitudes, which in turn foster new achievements.
And so, given the nature of our respective missions, we can work together to advance the Francophonie.
What exactly are we talking about?
My experience in education has taught me that teaching is a privilege for the person dispensing the knowledge and, above all, a privilege for those who acquire this knowledge. What is more, education not only benefits the student, it benefits the entire community. You are participants in this enrichment as trainers and educators.
This brings me to speak to you about what seems to me to be one of the fundamental goals of your work.
The Réseau des cégeps et collèges francophones du Canada is a very valuable educational and community tool.
First, it brings together people and institutions that are able to mould and transform society by strengthening the ties that unite all Francophones in Canada. You are one of the only networks that brings together the entire French-speaking population in Canada.
Second, it allows you to coordinate a joint venture by pooling your resources and your knowledge. Finally, and I emphasize this point, your network makes it possible to ensure a presence among the most remote and dispersed Francophones.
Let's talk about your community action.
It definitely has a broad scope. Together, you attract over 80% of young people pursuing post-secondary education. This means that hundreds of thousands of people who have been imprinted with the knowledge and values that you transmit regularly enter the job market.
This ability to affect society gives you the opportunity to strengthen, not only your respective communities but also, on a large scale, the entire French-speaking community.
You are on the right track. Even though your network was only created in 1995, it has been responsible for a number of initiatives that are consistent with this objective.
Your various cooperation and exchange projects among institutions within Canada and your Programme de renforcement institutionnel en matière technologique avec l'Afrique francophone are proof of this.
I am aware that there are difficulties. We have only to think of the challenge that program development poses. But the pitfalls should not slow your progress.
Your network pools your strengths.
By combining your resources and your knowledge, you are able to develop the French culture all across Canada. This makes you trailblazers in the Canadian Francophonie.
CEGEPs can contribute to extending the outreach of Quebec as the focal point for the French language. You are building knowledge that will benefit all Canadians. This is also true of colleges in minority communities throughout the country. You should all use your knowledge for the benefit of others.
You can be present everywhere.
Not all regions of Canada offer the same opportunities for post-secondary education. There is a shortage of college programs west of Ontario. This means that tens of thousands of Francophones do not have access to the professional training of their choice in their home community. They are forced to leave their community to study. But what is even more serious, in my opinion, is that they are deprived of programs that are adapted to their needs.
It is your duty to do what is necessary to provide them with what they need.
College education will then specifically meet the real and even pressing needs in certain communities.
Today, we are far from the two parallel streams that were once university and college. In the past, a student had to make a choice. These days, career paths require more of a type of crossover between university and college.
These are the types of projects that you should expand. But to do so, you must share your know-how, your science and your knowledge at the national level and, you must form more partnerships and better harmonize college courses through mutual recognition of credits and diplomas.
Your achievements show that you are working on it. The same is true for the promising idea to eventually establish a community college in Western Canada.
In the same spirit, you can strengthen your ties with the university network. It would be good to one day have compatible programs that pool all post-secondary French education resources in the country.
We would all benefit from this: you as managers and leaders of educational institutions; the students, who would acquire the skills needed to be useful members of society; and the entire Francophonie, which could acquire, in its language, the necessary training to prosper.
You have the tools to make it happen.
Information and communication technologies make it possible to reach areas where Francophones were committed to isolation merely ten years ago.
The learner or the student is no longer forced to come to you. You can reach him or her wherever they are without changing location.
The strength of these modern capabilities is added to certain skills that are specific to you. You are able to follow shifts in the job market to adapt your programs. You are already aware of the pressing needs of the communities in the fields of health and education.
You are also able to provide ongoing training. This is essential in our time when new technology appears daily.
This sometimes presents difficult challenges to overcome. You are constantly trying to do more with less. You must prevent dropouts by meeting the needs of the students, who are sometimes juggling studies, jobs and family obligations.
And you are all working in different environments, which leads you, as leaders of your institutions, to set your own objectives.
In Quebec, there is particular concern about the aging of specialized teachers who must be replaced. You wish to promote specialized college diplomas. You also want to make your programs more accessible. You must provide pre-university and technical training adapted to your community while your clientele is attracted to the major centres.
Elsewhere in the country, you are often pioneers in French-language training, particularly in Western Canada. You should, however, develop your partnerships.
It is also necessary for you to promote awareness of all of your educational institutions. I am referring to the Faculté Saint-Jean, for example, where Francophones from Western Canada and around the world can pursue university studies in French in a secure environment while still being exposed to enough English to learn it easily.
If I am focussing on your specific needs, it is because the strength of your network depends on the vitality of each of its members. Each institution must be dynamic and strong to fully contribute to the Francophonie. If you are firmly established in your community, you can lead a community action that is supported not only in your community but in the entire Francophonie. The work that we envision must rest on the foundations built by all of you.
Naturally, it is also a question of human and financial resources, but the circumstances seem to be in your favour.
Stéphane Dion , Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister Responsible for Official Languages, will be presenting an action plan in the near future that will make the connection between education and community development.
Therefore, now is the time to demand the government's support. Your communities and the Francophone community as a whole have everything to gain by doing so.
Your network gives you a voice; use it.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your commitment to French-language education and your contribution to bringing together the Canadian and international Francophonie. This commitment, despite its demands, enriches you all.
For you, this is an opportunity to expand; for Francophones, if offers the means and holds the hope of improving their community life, and for students, the opportunity to be properly equipped to build their future in French.
In conclusion, if I may say so, you are in a privileged position and you have the power to exert influence on a number of levels:
- The power to influence young people because you can act on their training, on their heads, so to speak!
- The power to influence because you are a key Canada-wide network that contributes to reinvigorating and modernizing the Francophonie and consequently enriching Canada's linguistic duality.
- The power to influence through the strength of your solidarity, which allows you to work now for the future.
Thank you.
