Teacher associations are decrying the province’s decision to reduce adult education funding by 50 per cent.
However, School District #27 (SD27) superintendent Diane Wright says the cuts will have a “minimal” effect on the free, adult programs offered at its local GROW Centre.
The centres provide adult students with courses from the literacy level to secondary school completion.
She explains 90 per cent of its local course requests come from graduated adults who need additional Grade 12 academic courses to pursue their choice in post-secondary education, and those will continue to be funded.
“Mostly they are coming back to get those academics, [such as] English 12, math 12, biology 12, and we are still able to offer those at no cost.”
The province will cease funding, however, for some non-academic courses that make up the remaining 10 per cent of SD27 requests, Wright says.
A change to how the district receives funding is also involved, but she notes that won’t impact students.
The current process is that when a student enters one of the district’s adult education courses, it receives 75 per cent of the provincial funding at the beginning, and the remainder when they successfully complete it.
Beginning 2013/14, the school district will receive 50 per cent up-front funding, with the remainder upon course completion.
This means students who sign up, but don’t complete a course for whatever reason will cost the district twice as much as it does now.
“Depending on how many students we have starting and not finishing, it could create some issues at some point in time. But, we’ll have to see what that looks like.”
Meanwhile, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the Adult Educators’ Provincial Specialist Association are calling on the education ministry to reverse its decision to cut funding for certain secondary school courses adults could formerly take for free.
While some adults are able to take courses online, the BCTF states those who cannot afford $400-$500 per course often also can’t manage costs for a computer and Internet connection, both essentials for online education.
