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Elgin Park students protest changes to elective math program

Advanced placement course prepares students for post-secondary studies
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Elgin Park students protested Monday against contemplated changes to a Grade 12 math program that prepares students for post secondary majors, claiming that the move will deny them an opportunity to excel. (Alex Browne photo)

More than 100 placard-carrying students – and some parents – gathered outside Elgin Park Secondary Monday morning to protest changes to a Grade 12 elective math program that prepares students for post-secondary education.

Surrey RCMP attended the rally, confining the protest to the grassy area in front of the South Surrey school. A vice-principal at the rally would not allow Peace Arch News on school property.

Organizers of the student-led protest told PAN they hoped to influence an administration decision, to be made Wednesday, which they claimed will condense a Math Advanced Placement (AP) program down from a full year into a three-month course.

Katrina Xiao, one of the student organizers, said that such a move will negatively impact grades students can achieve in the Grade 12 program – which provides calculus skills – seen as a basic requirement for many desirable post secondary majors.

“We don’t want that to happen,” she said. “We want to encourage students to challenge themselves – it doesn’t matter what you want to do (in post-secondary).”

Xiao said the students first became aware of the potential change when Grade 10s and 11s were given an information briefing on admission to the program.

But district spokesperson Doug Strachan said that what is actually being contemplated by administration is a separation of two courses – Math 12 Pre-Calculus and Calculus 12 Advanced Placement – that have been running as a combined course at the school.

“The administration has a few options to consider,” he told PAN in a phone interview. “The objective is that the school wants to keep offering these courses and make sure they are available and accessible to students. It might mean some change if the two courses are separated, but there will be no reduction in course time.”

“There is no hidden agenda here,” he added, noting that last year only a few students had pre-registered for the courses.

Mike Routtenberg, a parent of Grade 10 and Grade 12 students affected by the potential change – which he said also impacts many international students at the school – said that while the school administration is claiming the existing program is not popular, numbers of registrations are artificially low because younger students keen to get in have being denied access because they don’t have the prequalifications.

“But a lot of these students are registering for Grade 11 math at the school or are going to be taking it in summer classes,” he said. “When a teenager wants to give up their summer to take this, it means something. The universe we have now has become so competitive, they need to get this help.”

Xiao said she understood the move would affect between 90 and 100 students.

“But even more have come out to support us – we’re really glad because we can’t do this without them,” she said.