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We are groups of parents in the Lower Mainland who have been working independently with the School Boards in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Tri-Cities and Richmond to bring early Mandarin language learning at the elementary school level. We believe passionately that Mandarin language learning is important for our children not only from a cognitive perspective but also from a global perspective. A chance encounter through a blog posting led to collaboration of these two parent groups to form a unified voice urging support and implementation of this very important initiative. We are all volunteers and welcome your interest and participation in this process! For more information on our groups:
JOIN OUR CAUSE Help us bring the gift of bilingualism to our local public schools! Our school boards need to urgently consider and implement bilingual programs (other than just French) to address and meet the shifting needs of students, especially in our rapidly changing world.
This would not only make our school boards more competitive in attracting students back to public schools, but also retain those in or about to enter the system. We need to equip our students to be more competitive in today’s global market including language fluency in the world’s two most often used languages – English and Mandarin. We need to start early, ideally in Kindergarten/Grade 1 so students can master both languages as significant benefits only accrue if one is completely fluent in a second language. Students need more language skills to “talk to the world” and a Mandarin bilingual program will give them more opportunities to prepare for the future by becoming more global citizens. Join us in our quest to bring a formal Mandarin bilingual education program to public schools in BC! |