Canadian parent told they can’t have Mandarin school start their own
I’m a little unclear on this one, as there are several Mandarin immersion public schools in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. However this article states that the Ministry of Education told them that only English or French could be used as the main languages of instruction. Perhaps one of our readers in B.C. can shed some light on the issue?
Chinese Village Club plans school
It won’t be ready for the back-to-school rush this year, but the Chinese Village Club is hoping an ambitious plan to create its own bilingual, accredited school on the Semiahmoo Peninsula will come to fruition by this time next year.
According to club director Adele Yu and academic director Sophie Jin, the aim is to provide a five-day per week school, starting with a kindergarten/Grade 1 class and a Grade 7/8 class.
It’s hoped that the school, to be called the CVC Newbridge Academy, will be ready to accept students by the fall of 2017.
“We will provide the B.C. curriculum of 850 hours of education (in English) as well as 300 hours taught in Chinese,” Jin said. “The second language for the school would be Chinese – our aim is to share the language and share the culture with the local community.”
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
Norquay Early Mandarin Bilingual Program (EMB) Program Description
http://go.vsb.bc.ca/schools/norquay/Programs/mandarinprogram/Pages/default.aspx
Interesting. So how does Edmonton get around this, with it’s very well built-out Mandarin program?