Hundreds of people who have delayed upgrading their education for lack of money are expected to enrol in high school courses this fall and winter now that $550 fees will no longer be charged for graduated adults.
That’s the prediction of Michael McGlenen, School District 43’s district principal for Coquitlam Continuing Education.
“The good news here is folks who are considering moving on toward their educational goals will have the opportunity to do so independent of their wealth and status,” said McGlenen, who is also the president of the Continuing Education Directors Association representing B.C. public school districts.
Tuesday's announcement that adult grads will not have to pay fees for high school academic courses beginning Sept. 1 is expected to generate new students for programs such as English 12 and Math 11 and 12, while those who have already paid their fees but haven’t started or finished more than 5% of the course will get a refund.
McGlenen said staff will also be updating the continuing ed. website (ce43.com) to reflect the changes, adding, “We hope people will be patient while we make those changes."
The switch to no-fee courses for adult basic education comes after two years of a decline in enrolment after fees were introduced for adult graduates in May 2015.
McGlenen said the drop occurred gradually as students weighed their choices — pay for necessities or pay for tuition is the choice many faced — with the result that SD43 dropped some sections of courses.
“It did have an impact on our face-to-face class offerings at night school," he said. "The direct result was some non-grads wouldn’t be able to get into those face-to-face classes."
The $550 fee applied to both classroom courses and online and self-paced classes for adult learners who had already graduated.
But now with the fee removed, McGlenen speculated that as many as 250 more students could enrol for academic courses, with most of them likely signing up for January.
As well, he expects to see some communities that had to close their adult night classes to resume programming, a positive development, he said, because access to education shouldn’t depend on where you live.
As for staffing, McGlenen said the change won’t make a huge impact for SD43 because it has a number of programs and with enrolment constantly changing, can accommodate an increase in students.
“The great news for us in the program is we get to say, 'Do what you want. You’re not restricted based on your finances,'” he said, adding that he believes the cost of bringing back tuition-free programs will likely be made up by people paying higher taxes when they get into better jobs.
“There’s really no cost in the long term,” he said.
Meanwhile, students won’t have to pay tuition fees when they enrol in English and math upgrading courses at Douglas College, according to a spokesperson, while students who have already paid their tuition for upgrading courses for fall 2017 will be refunded.
Free tuition only applies to domestic students, Sucheta Singh, communications coordinator for the college, stated in an email. “Course offerings and fees remain unchanged for international students.”
For more information about Douglas College programs, visit here.
