Nova ScotiaA “significant infrastructure deficit” means only a fraction of eligible students are attending francophone school in Nova Scotia, said the superintendent of the province’s French school board on Tuesday as he called on the province to correct the issue. French school board says only a quarter of eligible students attend French schoolTaryn Grant · CBC News · Posted: Nov 05, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesAccording to the superintendent of Nova Scotia’s francophone school board, only 27.5 per cent of students in the province who qualify for a French first-language education are enrolled with the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)The superintendent of Nova Scotia’s francophone school board says only a fraction of eligible students are attending francophone school — a situation he attributes to a “significant infrastructure deficit” that he’s calling on the province to correct.Michel Collette of the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial said only 27.5 per cent of students in the province who qualify for a French first-language education are enrolled with the CSAP. He said the figure was calculated using 2021 census data and the CSAP’s 2023-24 enrolment data.“In other words, nearly three out of four children who are entitled under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to receive their education in French are unable to do so,” he told a legislature committee Tuesday.“Or at the very least, do not have equitable access to French first-language education.”The driving factors, he said, are geography and very large catchment areas. In some instances, students would have to make a round trip of hundreds of kilometres each day to attend their nearest French school, he said.Collette said students in Amherst, for example, would have to drive more than an hour to Truro to attend a CSAP school. He said no students in Amherst are enrolled in the French school system.Michel Collette, superintendent of the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial, pictured at Province House on Nov. 4, 2025. (Brian MacKay/CBC)Additionally, he said Nova Scotia’s Francophone population is growing fast — mostly because of immigration from French-speaking countries — and CSAP schools are struggling to meet demand.According to Education Department data, there were 6,976 students enrolled across CSAP’s 23 schools as of Sept. 30.Following Tuesday’s committee meeting, Collette told reporters the problem has been developing for at least a decade. But this is the first time the board has had data to confirm its suspicions, he said.The school board highlighted the infrastructure deficit in a report it recently delivered to government officials and released to the public.Tracey Barbrick, deputy minister of education and early childhood development, said the department has agreed to create a working group in response to the report from CSAP. She said terms of reference for the group are in the works.Tracey Barbrick, deputy minister of education and early childhood development, pictured at Province House on Nov. 4, 2025. (Brian MacKay/CBC)Collette said he was happy with the department’s response.“We do think that that is the path forward,” he said.Collette could not say exactly how many more schools are needed. He said he hopes the working group will look at underserved areas and areas of growth “to determine how we move forward.”He said CSAP has a “build it and they will come” principle. He pointed to schools in Tor Bay, Bridgewater, Chezzetcook that started out small and grew to 300 to 500 students.NDP MLA Paul Wozney said this problem has been apparent for many years and has been ignored for too long.“That goes back several governments, to be fair,” he said. “But this government inherited a known problem and ultimately its capital planning hasn’t reflected devotion of the resources to building the schools that are needed.”Barbrick noted that two new CSAP schools opened last year and three more are in the province’s five-year capital plan.“I think that that is a good start to get us moving in the right direction,” she said.MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORTaryn Grant covers daily news for CBC Nova Scotia, with a particular interest in housing and homelessness, education, and health care. You can email her with tips and feedback at taryn.grant@cbc.ca
Nova Scotia has a major shortage of francophone schools, board says
