English schools across New Brunswick are being given the option to drop French language instruction before Grade 5 if they have an intensive core French program in place for that grade, CBC News has learned.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock says he's willing to do whatever it takes to improve New Brunswick students' French language skills.

"We've provided districts with the opportunity to choose, based on the evidence [about] what may work best," he said.

"We will evaluate and go further in the education plan in announcing ways to meet the goal to have at least 70 per cent of kids graduate with bilingual capacity."

Lamrock said the intensive program is working, but core French instruction is not getting adequate results in his opinion.

New Brunswick schools will have the freedom to teach French how they want starting in the next school year, the government said in a note distributed to principals this week. Then they will be evaluated.

The approach that proves to have the best results will be implemented across the province.

Parent worries children won't be ready

Mary Butler, who chairs the parent school support committee at Garden Creek Elementary School in Fredericton, is concerned that some children won't be prepared for an intensive program in Grade 5 if they've never had core French training in the grades before that.

"My understanding is that the pilot has been based on the students who we have now, who would have had core French from kindergarten to Grade 4," she said.

"I don't think we can compare a pilot where there's no core from kindergarten to Grade 4."