I am on the west coast of Canada and my husband and I made the decision to educate our daughter, now eight in French. Our public schools offer a programme called French Immersion in which the students take all of their subject in French until middle school when elective courses are added and they are in English. My husband completed his schooling the same way. DD8 now goes to the same elementary school I did which had just introduce French Immersion the year before I started kindergarten in 1982. The programme has grown to the point where the school population is 75% French and 25% English classes. It is so popular for 2 reasons. It is a great way to ensure that your child becomes bilingual,especially with all the learning and mental benefits, that opens the door to many more job and career opportunities especially with the Federal government. And the second, during the cut backs to education, student learning assistance was reduced to a point where teachers had many special needs students in the class with little or no extra support for these students. Most times the French immersion classes didn't have these students , or had fewer of them and less severe cases. Many parents with children who have learning difficulties are not going to put another obstacle in front of their child when it come to their education. I know in the Vancouver area Mandarin immersion programmes are also available through the public school system in addition to the French immersion.