School closure: Beyond education
Rural Ramblings
We’re likely getting to close to a decision of Grande Yellowhead Public School Division’s review on the future of Evansview, Grand Trunk High School and Wildwood Schools. Taking all emotion out of this, I honestly expect that the outcome will mean the modernization and expansion of Grand Trunk in Evansburg meaning the end of Evansview and Wildwood.
The education minister is already publicly talking school closures and GYPSD is advocating better education for all. My gut tells me that this decision is all done bar the signing. Sadly, I’ve heard this all before if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard an education authority justify school closures for centralising then my pension pot would be a good deal larger.
From a financial point of view centralising makes perfect sense. One school, more students, less staff maybe, less maintenance over head and less costs per student. It’s a win-win for government and GYPSD both.
When I was living in the Western Isles in Scotland my wife and I went through this very scenario. The education department of the council (there are no school divisions in the UK) had committed itself to a new and expensive high school in the town, about 25 miles away. The only way the borrowing and costs worked for the new school was for there to be a minimum of 1,000 students. The education department set about closing the high school element of schools in outlying communities up to an hour away to make up the numbers.
Communities fought hard against it. Ours too. My wife and I were on the committee. There are strict rules imposed by the government in Scotland about school closures. The spin was the same, falling numbers, better education in a new school, yada, yada, yada. Maintenance on the targeted schools in the meantime was minimal or no existent. The council had to get its application right and by the numbers. It didn’t. The community won, and the school stayed open. We learned after we returned to Canada that the council simply waited another year, corrected its mistakes and shut the school.
The centralised school had its 1,000 plus students, just. Many people voted with their feet and left the island. Is it a better education? I don’t think so. The buildings are new but everything else is the same. Children are travelling over two hours a day on narrow roads that aren’t always treated for ice in winter. After school activities are impossible for most that must travel.
Closing a school isn’t just about the education. Those island schools and more across the country that closed gutted the communities. There was and is depopulation, property values were affected, and the economy suffered. Families would rarely consider moving to the outlying villages because there was no school. Is this the future for Wildwood? Perhaps there should be more of a say for the county and government in this as to the effect of a school closure on the wider issues, not simply education.
I’ve long thought that the global Victorian designed education system is broken. I don’t think we need to ship our kids off for two hours a day or more travelling on busses to a centralised school. Technology has opened doors so much that if you can do a degree course at home or locally why not high school? Food for thought somewhere? I hope so.