Just a little beyond the usual school catchment area norms
I don’t have a problem with recruiting students but I would like to see this as a provincial plan not individual districts. How many students are going to go to Rupert or Terrace or other northern communities? Susan Lambert points out that it will result in a two tier system. Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland regions will benefit as much from the attraction of the community as the quality of the schools.
I am not suggesting that we force students to reside in communities like Rupert, but under a provincial plan some of the profits would go to school districts that can’t get recruits.
[quote=“DWhite”]I don’t have a problem with recruiting students but I would like to see this as a provincial plan not individual districts. How many students are going to go to Rupert or Terrace or other northern communities? Susan Lambert points out that it will result in a two tier system. Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland regions will benefit as much from the attraction of the community as the quality of the schools.
I am not suggesting that we force students to reside in communities like Rupert, but under a provincial plan some of the profits would go to school districts that can’t get recruits.[/quote]
I’m not particularly sold that elementary students should be separated from their parents to attend a school in another country, there just seems something inherently wrong with the idea that young children should be moved to another country. I can’t fathom what that kind of situation must do to the concept of the family dynamic.
While I understand moving for high school (prep for university), I’m not even sure that in the end would be what’s best for the student.
Perhaps it’s just my concept of family and the importance of it is a tad outdated in this wider world.
The idea that elementary schools are “attracting” foreign students for financial gain, probably suggests that there are a few things that need to be fixed in the educational system at the moment.
I agree with you there. I was looking at it from the perspective of our school districts. I wasn’t looking at the reasons for sending the child in the first place which is obviously something that the parents want not necessarily something that the kid wants.
I was also assuming that the students would be older. My son teaches in Korea and he has been asked about schools in BC because some parents are already looking at where they might send their kids when they reach the age of 10.
At that young an age, I am not sure if any program is worth the splitting of a family. I would like to think that parents are more important. However, if there was a program that was available somewhere and it was something that an older teen was good at and wanted to pursue, then I think parents have to at least listen to the kid’s wishes. But it should be the desire of the child not the parent.