The Editor,
Re. “Who benefits when school district trustees visit China?” (Letters, The Tri-City News, Dec. 12).
I agree with the comments in Jorge Dyrkton’s letter to the editor. School District 43 trustees do not need to travel to China again at the expense of the Chinese government.
I worked in SD43 for 26 years and the increase of foreign students, who pay a high price to come to our schools, caused extreme pressure on classroom teachers to instruct those who spoke no English when they arrived here.
As well, the amount of time scheduled for specific instruction for these students by student services teachers was two half-hour periods per week and sometimes less if there were not enough teachers to provide that time.
This was especially difficult to provide during the cutback period of 12 years instituted by the BC Liberal government.
I am not against foreign students coming to our school district for their English education but if this is one of the clever ways we finance our building programs and other instructional programs, it is not a legitimate means to do so at the expense of foreign students and a reasonable amount of work for classroom teachers.
The numbers of foreign students should be limited to a finite and logical number per year to make the system work for everyone involved.
If students don’t get the instruction they need and the system is over-taxed by forced inflation of the student population to the point of detriment to all, then it is not an acceptable way to solve the financial requirements in Coquitlam school district.
Jeannine Silvestrone, Coquitlam
