Скачать или смотреть Vancouver Provincial Government destroying Adult Education

The Vancouver School Board is proposing to cut two adult education centers, according to a preliminary budget document released Thursday, April 6th.

If the budget were to pass as proposed, the Gathering Place Education Center at Helmcken street and Main Street Education Center at Gladstone Secondary School would close, leaving South Hill Center as the only adult education center in Vancouver.

Closing down these schools has a long term cost. Removing easy access to education to the public means fewer people become qualified for jobs that maintain society, fewer jobs also means less taxes flowing back into the economy.

The decision to close down and consolidate all of the adult education centers in Downtown Vancouver into one location at South Hill Center means for many people the difference between education and no education.

There are people who go to these Centers who sleep on couches, who are homeless, who are fighting addiction’s, who are terminally ill, who struggle with mental disorders and physical illnesses, who are upgrading their education to better their lives. To many, these schools are a window of opportunity to a brighter future, and shutting down these schools is a curtain call on this opportunity.

Many of the attendees are local, many students are trying to get an education to climb out of poverty or misfortune. Many use it as a part of their rehabilitation from dependencies or physical debilitation

Riding over an hour on the bus both ways can be incredibly stressful for some, especially when colliding with the other difficulties that they deal with, and this can make them feel overwhelmed and without help or hope.

Then, there is the financial burden to consider. For many, they cannot afford to spend the money on the increase in transit demand that would happen to them if all education centers consolidated into south hill. Many cannot afford a compass card, or a bus pass, or fare. Many of these people are impoverished, homeless, have expensive health issues, and/or are in other wise troubled and expensive circumstances. As well, there are many people struggling to balance their work schedule with their education schedule, and simply wouldn’t be able to allot more time to transit for their education and this would make their continuing education thus infeasible.

These issues are many of the reasons why adult education students have struggled in mainstream education in the first place, the benefit of accessible adult education, is that it caters to students individual needs instead of pushing forth the “one size fits all” style of mainstream education, and this benefit is completely destroyed by consolidating all adult education centers into one location, where it is out of reach to many who need education.

Part of their justification for doing so is that they claim attendance is down to 55 percent of capacity, but the information that they use to determine this is not perfectly authenticated, as it depends on inaccurate voluntary checking in, and doesn't account for the fact that attendance has gone down since the Vancouver School Board requires you to pay a fee of $550 if you have completed high school, even if your high school diploma comes from other countries where the credentials are not recognized in Canadian jobs or academics.

News was only made available about this decision on April 6, Thursday, and the meeting to discuss with the public this news is being held on April 11, on a Tuesday, this is problematic, because it only allows four days to get the word to the public and involves a weekend where students wouldn’t be able to network with each other to make this information widely received.

Please help to let others know that this is happening, post comments on social media, contact your local MLA or the sole remaining Vancouver School Board trustee, Diane Turner, to voice your concern.

Also, please come to the meeting at the VSB at 1580 West Broadway on Tuesday, April 11, 5 pm to 9 pm to show your dismay and resistance to the decision to close down the gathering place education center and the Main street education center.

Education is the foundation of empowerment. Please support the students in our community, please show that accessible adult education is a necessity.


CBC article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british...

Diane Turner information:
https://www.vsb.bc.ca/district-contac...

find your MLA:
https://www.leg.bc.ca/Pages/BCLASS-Se...

vancouver school board location:
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Vanc...

government budget survey:
https://survey.vsb.bc.ca/TakeSurvey.a...