i | i Thursday, April 26, 1951. TEE TRIBUNE, WILLIAMS LARLY. B.C. Rage 7 B.C. SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM HELD UP AS GOOD EXAMPLE An aggressive program of school over- hauling in British Coulmbla provides strohg proof that Canada’s shamefully | antiquated schools can be eliminated Fred Bodsworth writes in an article titled “The Shacks We Call Schools” in the current issue of Maclean's. Boasting by Canadians about their modern schools has completely obscur- ed the fact that education still goes or. in tl of dated, dung iuse ill-furnished and badly lit shacks which no progressive farmer would use to shelter a milk herd, says Bods- worth. But in British Columbia. a report by D r.Max Cameron, professor of educa- tion at the University of B.C., at the end of the war, brought prompt action by the province, which reorganized 649 scattered school districts into 74. began to spend 150 times as much per year on: schools as it did before the war, and launched a school building program which has cost $40 millions in the past two and one half years. It is now estimated that eighty percent of B.C. children are now attending either new or extensively renovated schools. Although there are 1,500 new schools in Canada with glass block walls, air conditioning, acoustic ceilings, terrazo floors and suntrap windows, 10,000 others have no lights and must clese early on dull afternoons because stud- INTERIOR POWER & EQUIPMENT (i. D. Scott) @ FARM MACHINERY @ IRRIGATION e e SYSTEMS POWER UNITS SAWMILLS ents cannot see the blackboard, say: Bodsworth Rovghly 10,000 Canadian schools, says | Bodsworth, have no indoor toilets. ‘An estimated 5,000 still use on!y pail and dipper for drinking water, thereby spreading epidemics. There are a thous and or so whose only water supply is a nearby stream. In Ontario there are 31 log cabin schools, in ‘Manitoba 42, and, says Bodsworth, “nobody has counted bow many more there are in the rest of Canada. Bosworth quotes a reputable school architect as saying: “Many schools in towns, as well as rural areas, are noth- ing but grim and ugly fortresses, super fire traps with oily floors, poor lightiag, Victorian sanitary facilities and little play space. a One teacher in eastern Ontrio re- cently complained the average tem- peratures for Novemper were 52 de- grees at 9 am., 54 degrees at noon, and wrote: “I wear woolen underhose and heavy cotton overhose. My feet are still cold.” Bodsworth gives evidence of chil- dren wearing coats, hats and even mittens in school and reports that “Aa thousand rural teachers have quit their jobs in Quebec because of pour heating.” About four years ago, Winnipeg call- ed a team of educationists from the University of Chicago to give unbiased comments on city schools. “The report left more red ears around Winnipeg than any Portage Avenue blizzar,” says Bodsworth. British Columbia, says Bodsworth, affords the strongest proof that anti- schools can be eliminated just as soon as citizens admit,the need. The prov- ince now pays 70 percent of new school costs a8 against the former 30 percent. Rebuilding in BIC. is going on so fast the Minister of Eduction has time to do little more than run around the province officiating at opening cere- monies. “§.0.S.” has no literal meaning, but was chosen as a distress signal be- cause if its ease in transmitting. hs New 5.2. & 1290P. EDC) STARTER PARTS. CHAINS FILES WEDGES - Or see our Northern Representative JAN BOWELL Burns Lake, B.C. Avpilable Now! TITAN CHAIN SAWS AUTOMATIC CLUTCH OILING SALES SERVICE REPAIRS Contact Your Local Dealer McKay @ Williams LaVerdiere | Lake, B.