246 THEISLAND ACADIANS

was run by the sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. It was the Superior of the Convent in Miscouche, Sister Sainte-Charité (Eléosa Arsenault), who took the initiative to obtain these scholarships which were funded by her Order, the Department of Education in Quebec and the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society*®. Over a period of about ten years approximately thirty young women benefited from these scholar- ships. Most of them came back to the Island to teach and are still carrying out their duties.

The creation in 1969 of a French-language teachers’ college on the campus of the University of Moncton constituted a turning-point in Acadian education in the Maritime Provinces. The teachers’ college has subsequently become the Faculty of Education which provides a high standard of training in French for any student who intends to take up teaching.

ADVANCES AND SETBACKS

After twenty-three years as inspector of Acadian schools, Frangois- E. Doiron retired in 1962 and was replaced by J.-Albert Gallant. After his first visit to the thirty-five “Acadian” classes, the new inspector discovered that in seventeen of these classes all the teaching was done in English. Inspector Gallant also discovered that the knowledge of French varied considerably from one school to another. He recom- mended that the schools be divided into two categories with different French programs. As a result of his recommendation, the Acadian schools in the parishes of Egmont Bay, Mont Carmel and Wellington were grouped to form Section A in which French continued to be taught as a first language. Section B comprised the Acadian schools in the parishes of Tignish, Palmer Road, Bloomfield, Miscouche, North and South Rustico, and Hope River where the majority of the pupils could no longer speak French. A curriculum was set up establishing French as a second language, even though there were many pupils whose mother tongue was still French*'. A few years later (1966) a study carried out in the schools of both Sections A and B showed that only 50.6 percent of the pupils of Acadian origin understood and spoke French*?.

During the 1960s the Department of Education showed more awareness than ever of the need for French education. In announcing