In Canada far more Francophones are bilingual than Anglophones, the reality of living in a country and world dominated by English, though there are plenty of monolingual Francophones living outside the larger municipal centres in Quebec and to some degree New Brunswick. The proliferation of English is a sensitive subject with the Quebecois and they are very protective of their language rights. Outside of these areas, and to some degree Ottawa (due to the federal government presence and it’s proximity to Quebec), there aren’t very many fluent French speakers. The new Ontario government did manage to upset the minority French speakers in Ontario recently with their cancelling of a proposed French language university. The reality is however that for most Canadians, French just isn’t part of their cultural landscape.
In the Ontario public school system where my children attend, regular French language instruction begins in grade 4 and is mandatory until grade 9, providing 6 years of instruction. DS19 actually had to take an additional year in grade 10 because of the requirements of the special program he attends. Neither of my children are anywhere near being bilingual and most students drop it as soon as they can.
No child whose sole source of French language learning is through the regular school curriculum becomes fluent. The only students who manage to attain functional bilingualism outside of French speaking communities are those who are enrolled in French Immersion which usually begins in grade 1. There is extended immersion which begins in grade 7 but I don’t know how effective that program is. Demand for French Immersion programming has skyrocketed for a variety of reasons but the school boards can’t find enough qualified teachers to meet demand. There has been a suggestion that the province should recruit teachers from France in order to address the shortage of qualified French Immersion teachers.
As an anecdote as a child I had 2.5 years of French Immersion from Sr. Kindergarten to half way through grade 2 at which point we moved to Puerto Rico for a couple of years. When we returned to Canada I did not have French instruction until grade 7. I managed to make it all the way through 2 years of middle school, 5 years of high school, and 1 year of university French instruction without ever having to study, solely based on those 2.5 years of immersion instruction I received in early elementary school and I am in no way bilingual. That’s how bad French language instruction is in the Ontario public school system. I suspect that it’s not any better in any of the other provincial school systems either. It’s not that people don’t want to be fluent French speakers it’s that the instruction is very poor.
DS21 opted to drop French after grade 9 and take Spanish this year in grade 10 instead. He is enjoying it far more than he ever has French class and intends to continue with it for the remainder of high school. Based on the progress he has already made I suspect that he will gain far more fluency in Spanish in 3 years then he acquired in French even after 6 years of instruction.