“College funding is capped by the provincial government, so when low literacy students are sent here, problems arise. There have been 40 people on wait lists for fundamental English. There is very little attrition, so we can’t service them. Some must wait a year.” – Educator during Consultation

• School Districts have too many demands on them and can’t fulfill all the needs; they are spread thin. Because they don’t have the resources to address everything, they focus on whatever their administration considers to be the basics.

• In some School Districts, schools are not funded to provide any programs for adults.

• According to some, all the blame mustn’t fall to the schools. Some of the people we talked to complained that parents don’t value and participate in their kids’ education. Others believe kids leave school because they have no future, no hope of jobs to go to, no perceived reason to go to school. They ask “where is the role of the school in all of that?”

Adjusting Our Vision

The following are our reflections on what all of the foregoing implies in terms of future action around literacy and learning in BC:

7) Support the Traditional Education System in Undertaking Necessary Reforms

Clearly, there are opportunities for improvements and reform within BC’s education system. A number of these have been identified and affirmed as part of this consultation. The most significant among them, in our view, is the need to move to a learning-outcomes based model and to one that recognizes both academic and non-academic outcomes. We recommend that those in the literacy community ally with and support those within the traditional education system in their efforts to undertake reform.

8) Provide Traditional Education Institutions the Necessary Resources to Do their Job

Whatever the goals are for reform – be it smaller class size, more time for individualized instruction, more professional development and “in service” time for teachers, access to expertise around learning disabilities, and so on – the system is not adequately resourced to do all that is expected of it. We recommend that those in the literacy community ally with and support those within the traditional education system in their efforts to gain access to necessary resources.

9) Acknowledge the Contribution of Non-Traditional Learning Models

Given the consistency with which we heard that the traditional education system is not – for whatever reasons – meeting the needs of approximately a third of our children, teens, and adults, more attention and acceptance should be given to non-traditional learning models. We recommend that there be full support for any strategies which foster greater energy and garner greater resources for creative, inclusive, and holistic learning models – whether delivered as part of or alongside the traditional education system.