www.make-it-count.ca
Learning English is important
The Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team, which formed in 2011, is a diverse group of young people who are working to improve the policies and practices that affect immigrant and refugee youth in British Columbia and in Canada.
This inspiring group of young people is behind the Make-It-Count campaign asking the B.C. Ministry of Education to give high school credit to immigrant and refugee youth for their English Language Learner (ELL) classes.
English Language Learner (ELL)
As I mentioned in my previous post about registering for Kindergarten (my family’s first interaction with the public school system), ELL is the term that is now used in British Columbia. The term English Language Learner better reflects the multiple experiences of immigrant and refugee youth by acknowledging that for many of them English is a third or fourth language.
Make It Count
The Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team has published a report that includes a number of recommendations to decrease the obstacles that many immigrant and refugee children, youth and families come up against when they arrive in Canada. Counting ELL classes toward graduation is just one of many insightful recommendations.
The petition will be available until November 30th (only three more days) and already has over 2,000 signatories, read more about Make-It-Count and sign the petition here.
