The present situation is that students of French-English bilingual classes in the primary school are also together during their French class days, thus making a separate « track ». Typically we have 3 classes per year : 2 are regular French classes, and one is the bilingual class (example : CPA + CPC, CPB). The students of the 3 classes get together only during recesses or in Japanese language classes. The students in the bilingual class stay with the same classmates all throughout the primary school, year after year, except for those who leave and newcomers who join in.

So as to allow a better mix of students from all classes, goal which APE-fapée agrees would be beneficial, the other parents’ association, AF-fcpe, has recommended for several years and on many occasions to drop this organization in favor of a bilingual « section ». In a section, the bilingual students would be scattered among all classes, and would regroup only for the English class day, as per this example:

Section organization example :

• 72 students (48 regular, 24 bilingual) scattered evenly among 3 classes: each class has 16 regular students and 8 bilingual students
• during French class days, the 3 classes are given with the full attendance of 24 students each
• during English class days, the 8 bilingual students of each of the 3 classes are regrouped into a 4th class for English, while the 3 classes are given with the remaining attendance of 16 regular students each

We say this proposal is not viable, both on academic and economic grounds.

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In the bilingual classes, mathematics are given every day, alternating between French and English. The 2 teachers liaise so that one resumes exactly where the other one stopped the previous day. In the present track organization, this works well. In a section system, this would require that all classes keep exactly the same pace, each and every day of the year, since the English teacher would have to teach mathematics on English days for students coming from all 3 classes. This perfect and constant overall synchronization would obviously be very difficult if not impossible to maintain.

In the present track system, each class takes one room with one teacher. In a section, an additional room would be required for the English class, for half the days. In the above example, this would result in increasing the resources consumption to 3½ rooms and 3½ teachers, adding nearly 20% to the overall cost and that would be felt in the school fees. To avoid this, the 3 classes with 16 students during English days would have to be regrouped into 2 classes, which would further add stress on the academic front, with some regular students having then 2 different French teachers depending on the day.

There are other reasons against a section. Bilingual students would seat one day in a class, the next day in another one, and they would have to share their desk in the English class with another student who would seat there the other days. Finally, the English teacher would have to work with 3 different French teachers at the same time, whereas in the present track system they work in pairs.