The Editor,
Re. "Trustee to ask for red tape relief" (The Tri-City News, April 15).
I applaud School District 43 trustees for taking a stand against the progression of Ministry of Education policy toward applying the distributive learning (online) criteria to the continuing education (adult education) regular classroom environment.
The online criteria was never designed or intended for a regular classroom environment. Common sense shows it is a ridiculous idea to ask districts to collect and store thousands of student documents like tests and assignments to prove that the students actually do course work and that the teachers do teach.
Structured face-to-face adult education classes are similar to structured face-to-face classes offered in the regular K-12 system. Why does the government want to create a separate and higher standard for funding for adult learners when the educational environment is the same?
If the government is big on literacy, on improving graduate rates and re-educating adults to enter the workforce, why does it create a burden on teachers and a barrier to learning in an environment where student attendance has been used to determine adult student funding? Isn't it detrimental enough that the funding per adult student is significantly lower than the funding for a student in the regular K-12 system?
Leo Hutchinson, Coquitlam
