It’s magandang balita (good news) for Vancouver public school students looking to expand their Filipino language skills.
The city’s school board unanimously voted Monday night to offer a Filipino language and culture course for students in grades 10 to 12 at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary next school year.
According to the board, it will be the first time such a class will be available not only in the Vancouver School District but to any students in British Columbia.
The course is designed to introduce students to the Filipino language at the beginner level while also exploring Filipino history, traditions and culture, said the Vancouver School Board in a written statement.
Leonora Angeles, a University of British Columbia professor and president of the National Pilipino Canadian Cultural Centre (NPC3), welcomed the news and said the Filipino community has been lobbying for such a move since the 1990s.
“This is highly significant,” said Angeles. “I really wish it had come sooner.”
According to the NPC3, the number of Filipino people in Canada is approaching one million, and the demographic is the country’s third-largest ethnic community.
English and Filipino are the official languages of the Philippines. Filipino is based on Tagalog, the language of the Tagalog people.
Canadian census data from 2021 shows that almost 83,000 British Columbian residents speak the Filipino language, and approximately 174,280 Filipino people live in the province.
“The Vancouver School Board is on the cutting edge in taking the lead in this because it is host to the biggest Filipino population in B.C.,” said Angeles.
Angeles said she would like to see the curriculum extended further so that students at the elementary school level can also have the opportunity to learn.