Vancouver OKs British Columbia’s first high-school Filipino language-culture course

The standardized version of Tagalog will be taught this school year to Grades 10 to 12 students at Tupper Secondary School. GOOGLE

The Vancouver School Board approved British Columbia’s first Filipino language and culture course, to be taught at an East Vancouver high school.

“[The Grade 11 course] is intended to introduce students to the Filipino language at the beginner level, while exploring Filipino history, traditions and culture,” a school board spokesperson told Daily Hive. It is non-credit elective course.

The British Columbia Ministry of Education-approved language courses currently include French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Mandarin and American Sign Language.

Teacher Maria Ramirez will teach the standardized version of Tagalog this school year to Grades 10 to 12 students at Tupper Secondary School. Ramirez worked with principal Jason Lauzon to create the course

Filipinos are the second-largest ethnic minority group in Vancouver, and the third-largest in BC overall, making up 5% of the population of the city.