Heritage Language Schools

SOHL: Funding pulled from heritage language schools in Saskatchewan SOHL operates 80 heritage language schools and organizations and they teach about 40 languages at schools in Regina, Saskatoon and elsewhere in the province, according to CBC. Now a petition spear-headed by SOHL is circulating calling on the ministry to reinstate funding for language schools and they're looking for signatures, according to Tamara Ruzic, executive director of SOHL. "I could understand if we're talking about millions of dollars here ... but we're talking about $225,000 that benefited over 80 non-profit organizations," Ruzic told CBC Radio The Morning Edition. "This cut, to be blunt, has been a slap in the face to the dedicated volunteers who have been doing this for 25 years." Ruzic said the grant money allowed SOHL to give volunteer teachers an honorarium, as well as pay for school supplies, transportation and — in some cases — lunches for students. In March, the Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages said they received notification the Ministry of Education was pulling a $225,000 grant, which had been provided for the past 25 years, due to less than favourable economic conditions in the province. With the grant money being pulled, she said it likely many of the weekend language schools will end. "I think a lot of them will continue the best they can but I am afraid some of the smaller ones, the ones that don't have a lot of money— the newer ones — they might shut down," Ruzic said. Losing language schools equals loss of culture Sabine Wecker is a teacher and coordinator at Regina German Language School. Executive director of the Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages says the province should not be cutting language schools at a time when more immigrants are moving to Saskatchewan. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.