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<h1 class="entry-title">Punjabi in Surrey schools: Appeal to parents of grade 4 students of T.E. Scott and Chimney Hill Schools</h1>
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<div class="gmail-td-post-author-name"><div class="gmail-td-author-by">By</div> <a href="https://www.voiceonline.com/author/rattan-mall/">posted by: Rattan Mall</a><div class="gmail-td-author-line"> - </div> </div> <span class="gmail-td-post-date"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2018-04-30T14:17:31+00:00">April 30, 2018</time></span> </div>
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<p><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:medium"><a href="http://www.voiceonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/COMMUNITY-BALWANT-SANGHERA-2017-sub.jpg" class="gmail-td-modal-image"><img class="gmail-alignleft gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-64745 gmail-td-animation-stack-type0-1" src="http://www.voiceonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/COMMUNITY-BALWANT-SANGHERA-2017-sub-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300"></a>BY BALWANT SANGHERA</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:medium">President</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:medium">Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA)</span></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium"><strong>SURREY,</strong>
with more than 72,000 students, has now become the largest school
district in British Columbia. Nearly 16,000 student attending Surrey
schools are Indo-Canadians. Consequently, eight high schools and four
elementary schools in Surrey are offering Punjabi as second language. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">According
to the provincial language policy, students from grades five to eight
are expected to take a second language. They are offered a number of
choices including Punjabi. If the students don’t choose a second
language they are automatically enrolled in French as a second language.
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">For
more than 23 years, Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) has
been promoting Punjabi in BC’s public schools, post- secondary
institutions and the community. It has been very successful in this
regard. As a result of PLEA’s efforts, Punjabi classes are under way in
eight high schools and four elementary schools in Surrey and many other
places in Metro Vancouver.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">Second
language is compulsory from grades five to eight and optional from
grades 9 to 12. The Surrey School District conducted a survey in October
2017 in all of its elementary schools in order to determine interest in
a second language. The survey was sent to the parents of grades 2, 3
and 4 and offered a choice of 10 languages as the option for second
language. These were: French, Punjabi, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean,
Japanese, German, Italian, Aboriginal and ASL (American Sign Language). </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">Forty-eight
per cent of the survey participants that reponded chose French, whereas
21 % chose Punjabi. Fourteen per cent preferred Mandarin and 9% went
for Spanish. The rest were between 1 and 3 %. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">The
district administration submitted a report about these findings to the
Board of School Trustees. As a result of this, they recommended two
elementary schools where there was a good potential for Mandarin and two
were recommended for Punjabi. The two schools where Punjabi has a good
potential are T.E. Scott (<a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=7079-148+Street&entry=gmail&source=g">7079-148th Street</a>) and Chimney Hill (<a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=14755-74+Avenue&entry=gmail&source=g">14755-74th Avenue</a>).
In order to firm up these numbers, the school district administration
has sent another survey to the parents of grade 4 students in both of
these schools asking them if they will be interested in enrolling their
child in a Punjabi class in grade five in September 2018.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium">On
behalf of Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA), I would like
to urge parents of grade 4 students of both T.E. Scott and Chimney Hill
Schools to fill in the survey form, mark Punjabi as a second language
choice for their child and return the form to the school of their child
as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, they should do this
immediately. If any parents did not get the survey form they should
contact the school and follow up. This is an excellent opportunity to
ensure that our children get enrolled in the Punjabi class of their
school. For further information they should feel free to contact me at
604-836-8976 or Sadhu Binning at 778-773-1886.</span></span></p></div></article></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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