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Quebec government cuts back program to help grade 6 kids learn English

Why does everything that happens in Quebec politics have to be viewed through the lens of language and culture?

Because apparently that's how the province's political establishment wants it.

The sovereigntist Parti Quebecois minority government's decision to cut back a program of intensive English-language instruction for francophone Grade 6 students is the latest move in the province's endless language war.

Education Minister Marie Malavoy announced Thursday that the program set up by the previous Liberal government aimed at giving francophone kids a grounding in English at all elementary schools by 2015 was being scrapped as unrealistic, CTV News reported.

"You have just a little more than 12 per cent of schools teaching intensive English," said Malavoy. “Most schools have regular classes in English and they speak English probably not so bad.”

[ Related: 'Pastagate' prompts review of Quebec language office ]

The former Liberal government announced the program in 2011, calling for all Grade 6 students to spend half a year in English immersion in order to improve bilingualism rates, the National Post reported.

It was presumably a recognition that while there's bipartisan support to preserve French language and culture in Quebec, the province is a francophone island in a sea of more than 300 million predominantly English speakers in North America, and that English has become the international language of business.

Learning English is important, the Malavoy said, but there are simply not enough qualified teachers to implement the program in just two years. Schools that already have the immersion program can continue if they want, she added.

But of course people viewed the minister's announcement from the context of the PQ's stated policy to strengthen the French language against erosion from English influences.

It's tabled legislation to expand French as the mandated language of work in smaller businesses. And it was recently embarrassed by the so-called "Pastagate" affair, when over-zealous officials of the Office québécois de la langue française, the province's language watchdog, demanded some restaurants remove Italian words from their menus.

The Post reported Malavoy's announcement came as the government considers revising history textbooks' handling of key nationalist events such as the British conquest of Quebec in 1760, the 1837 Patriotes rebellion and the sovereignty referendums of 1980 and 1995. The PQ election platform said reinforcing the "teaching of our national history" was a cornerstone of "sovereigntist governance," a key to the party's long-term independence project.

The Liberals' English-immersion initiative had broad support among francophone parents, the Post noted. But the PQ worries the program might detract from students' ultimate mastery of French. She's ordered a study of what it's impact would be, as well as the effect of limited English instruction to Grade 1 and 2 pupils, the Post said.

As always, the PQ are being pressured from more militant sovereigntist elements. The Post cited a report by Le Devoir that a nationalist group called the Coalition pour l'histoire has criticized Malavoy's department for promoting multiculturalism at the expense of teaching young people key moments in "the history of the Quebecois nation."

That in turn triggered an outcry from a group of historians accusing Malavoy of using history instruction for "purely political and partisan ends."

[ Related: Fate of new Quebec language law unclear with one party opposing key elements ]

A Liberal education critic said the PQ government has a clear agenda with its moves on English and history instruction.

“I would say they are bringing national politics into our primary and secondary schools. …There is a vision being imposed that worries me,” she told broadcaster RDI, according to the Post.