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LETTER: Closing the White Rock learning centre is 'wrong-headed'

Kudos to students for standing up to Surrey school district
protest-sswr-lc-board-meeting
Protesters turned out at the Surrey school board meeting on Jan. 15 to make their plea to save the South Surrey White Rock Learning Centre.

Editor,

I am writing to commend the students of the South Surrey White Rock Learning Centre for bravely protesting the proposed closure of their learning centre. I hope their voice will be heard. 

As a retired professor of Adult Education who has researched and published on the issue of young adults who do not fit into what is often called the “industrial schooling model,” I can assure the students, staff and decision-makers it is well documented that “one-size schooling” does not fit all learners. Hundreds of alternative learning centres exist across Canada in order to provide an option for young adult students who cannot succeed in the mainstream schooling system.

Options are a critical component of public education. 

According to Statistics Canada, an estimated 700,000 adults between 16 and 65 are living with low literacy in B.C. The numbers in other provinces are even higher. Adults with low literacy and no high school diploma typically end up in the lowest income brackets unable to fully participate in today’s society. 

The way forward for the White Rock/South Surrey learning program is not to assume, as reported, that smaller classrooms in the same system that has already failed them will work this time. The answer lies in finding the funding to either upgrade their facility or move their program intact to a better facility.

And it is possible. 

The Strong Start program for vulnerable children recently received ongoing funding in White Rock/Surrey after loud protests from families and our community. Our Adult Learning Centre students are no less vulnerable.

Closing the successful White Rock/Surrey Learning Centre is wrong-headed. Let’s help these students have a better future. 

Dr. Allan Quigley, PhD