McGill University – HCGM Collaborative Effort Bears Fruit

Bachelor of Education Teaching Greek as a Second Language Fall 2016

Several years of discussions between education officials from the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal (HCGM) and officials from McGill University’s Phrixos B. Papachristidis Chair of Modern Greek Studies and its Department of Education, led to a historic meeting on Friday the 24th of April, where we received confirmation that one of our most sought-after objectives, the creation of a Bachelor of Education programme that would offer specialty in the teaching of Greek as a second language by a local university, will finally become a reality.

The meeting was preceded by a guided tour of the École Socrates-Démosthène Campus II and the Hellenic Community Centre Adrian Maris, where the McGill officials were impressed with our School, our teachers, our students, our programmes, our facilities and everything we represent. We were equally impressed by their commitment to create this programme. The Education Dean hinted that every effort would be made to have the B. Ed programme (teaching Greek as a second language), available to university students by fall 2016.

This wonderful news means that the sustainability of our Greek programme is assured. We will no longer have to rely on teachers from abroad for our preschool, primary and future high-school Greek courses and programmes. At the same time, the HCGM through École Socrates-Démosthène will help provide McGill Education graduates, many of them former students of our School, with another alternative for a teaching career.
At every level, from the early childhood years, right through to university we have set the bar high and we are the envy of every other Greek community of the Diaspora.