School District 58 Nicola-Similkameen admits that elective courses like arts and music will be affected by not only lower student enrollment overall, but also by lack of interest.

If that news wasn't bad enough schools are still being shut down, 30-plus children are being crammed into classrooms — with more than acceptable amounts of special needs students per class, vital programs are being axed from the curriculum, and then, of course, there are the Fraser-institute sponsored FSAs, which have caused distrust and confusion no matter what side of the fence you sit.

Regardless of the why and the how, it looks like we are destined to become like our south-of-the-border neighbours, who have had arguably the worst education system in the Western World since before I can remember.

B.C. school districts are quick to point out their technological advancements in the classroom and how they are keeping up with today's social media/communication trends, but are they keeping up overall?

The vital music and art programs are usually the first to be cut when trustees and administrators try to make budget, but even the threshold for the core curriculum: math, science, English, and social studies is getting lower and lower. So, let's not pretend that the province and school boards are only cutting extra-curricular activities and elective courses. Academia in B.C. cannot make that argument anymore.

To add to the problem, there is the growing trend of what I call customized student learning.

Are teachers not demanding enough from their students? Perhaps it is not politically correct anymore to collectively push and challenge students, but it is quite correct to let them dominate the classroom and dictate how they should learn. “Sorry, but our little Eddy doesn't learn that way,” goes the argument. Imagine little “Eddy,” as a result of his British Columbian education, telling his boss on his first day of employment, “Sorry, boss. I just don't work that way.”

You've got to hand it to teachers. They are in the middle of this education crisis and are being tugged at from all sides; meanwhile, they have to educate and maintain respect from children, who sometimes don't even respect their own parents. If parents have difficulty getting through to their children, how much more will teachers?

There needs to be a major shakeup in academia. As the saying goes, “people must change before kingdoms can.”

If we can't immediately get our stubborn politicians to make the necessary changes in the education system, perhaps, in the meantime, we can work on things on an individual basis: from parent to child, teacher to parent, and to child again.

— John O'Connor