APeriod of Transition 117

place in English. The School Act said nothing, however, about the language of instruction in Acadian schools; therefore, one could con- tinue teaching in French. It was a paradoxical state of affairs: before setting out to teach in French, Acadian candidates had to demonstrate their proficiency in English at the Normal School in order to obtain their teacher’s licence’.

According to the school inspector, William Henry Buckerfield, the 1863 amendment to the School Act helped Acadians move ahead by making them learn the language of the country. He wrote:

The abolition of the Government allowance to Acadian teachers, thus putting the French population on precisely the same footing as their fellow subjects, was, I think, a judicious enactment, and it will tend most strongly to the general introduction of the English language in districts throughout which it has hitherto been of rare occurence. I believe, indeed, that the most intelligent among the French are fully sensible of the disadvantage under which many of them have laboured, from their ignorance of the language in which the business of the country is conducted’’

The long term effect of this policy was the anglicization of Acadian schools; in the short term several Acadian schools had to close since the School Act did not allow duplication of establishments in the same school district’*. Consequently, if there was already a recognized English school, the Acadian school would not be recognized as a district school and receive public funds. Even in entirely Acadian districts, there were problems stemming not from the presence of English schools, but from the shortage of licenced francophone teachers qualified to teach unilingual French children. It was a vicious circle, since most Acadian teachers did not know enough English to pass the Board of Education examinations. In some schools in Egmont Bay and Mont Carmel the difficulty was overcome by hiring young women without a licence whose salaries were paid by private dona- tions’’.

Over the years, new amendments to the School Act were to alter this deplorable situation. By 1864, two schools were allowed in dis- tricts that were deemed to be densely populated. Acadian Catholic schools were thus tolerated in certain districts**. In 1868, urged on by the Honourable Joseph-Octave Arsenault, the Legislative Assembly passed a motion encouraging teachers to become qualified to teach