eA. Wo ate 4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, September 23, 1987 _Commentary | Part of a horse by Frank Howard The Liberals or the Tories, or: ‘maybe both of them, should send a bouquet of flowers to Pauline Jewett, M.P. She is the’ - External Affairs critic of the. - federal N.D.P. caucus... At the tendering of a gift one should not look the horse in the mouth, so the saying goes. In the current situation Pauline Jewett ‘is the horse and the gift relates to violence.. _ It. all started when Liberal leader John Turner announced the Liberals were going to oc- cupy some N.D.P. ground, namely that relating to apartheid in South Africa. Turner, a lacklustre’ sub-chief, struggling for bottom position in ‘public opinion polls, decided to change course with respect to apartheid. Turner told an international - Liberal meeting on Sept. 10 that. ~ Canada should sever economic . ~ and diplomatic ties with South . _ , Africa by the end of this year if . *- South Africa does not make pro: ° “gress in removing apartheid’ in that country. Good move, John. It’s’ about time the Liberals _’ Tecognized the néed for such ac- ‘tion, -: Co Turner followed up that _ $peech by asking questions in the _. House of Commons relating to . Prime. Minister Mulroney’s . @arlier promise to discontinue oa le | Letters to the editor will be con .. sidered for publication only when signed. Piease include your = telephone number, The editor ' reserves the right to condense and ‘edit letters. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of ithe . Terrace Review. 7: ee - Terrace — Review — Established May 1, 1985 ‘The Terrace Review is published each . Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: Mark Twyford Editor: _ Michael Kelly - Staff Reporter: Fod Strachan. Advastising Sales: Dennis Lissimore - ’ Preductlon: Jim Hall, Alvin Stewart, Arlene Wand, Gurbax Gill, Harminder K. Singh, Linda Mercer, Ariene Gaspar Office: , Linda A. Copeland, Philip Musselman Accounting:;-. _ - Mar} Twyford, Rosemary McGettigan; Second-class mail registratian No. 6806. “All material appearing in the Terrace Review Is - protected under Canadian copyright Registra: ‘tlon No, 362778 and cannot legally be tepro- duced for any reason without permiasion of the publisher. ; mo Errore end omissions. Adverilsing is accepted on the condition that In the event of typographi- cal error, that portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item will not be charged far, bul the balance of the advertise ment will be paid for at the applicable rate, Advertisers must assume responalbility for er rora In any classified ad which le supplied to the Terrace Review in handwritten form. in compllance with the B.C. Human Rights Act, no advertisement will be published which dis- criminates against a peracn due to age, race, religion, color, sex, natlonallty, ancestry or placa of origin. 4535 Greig Avenues, Terrace, B.C. V8G 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 : ’ r posal which seenis attractive to - . Opinion on the subject. | TERRACE — The B.C. New. caucus committee:on resources relationships with South Africa Over apartheid, There are similarities in the House of Commons to a horse race. Sometimes there is an in- tense jockeying for position. If one party puts forward a pro- the general public another party will try to get in on the publicity sO as not to appear devoid of Turner, of course, was jockeying for position. He was trying to gain additional public Support both for his own tenuous hold on the Liberal leadership and to move upwards in the pack in terms of public’ popularity. Co The N.D.P., fearing that it te, ; MO RDO WEST BD OF Jen? ] continued on page 24 7 Education syste m s Vietoria Correspondent - If you wanted. to wrap up the state of affairs British Columbia’s education system is in, rotten is the word that comes to mind. . The entire-education system is overloaded and under-financed. Universities can’t. handle the demand, leaving students. stranded in mid-education; there aren’t enough computers in: schools to give the new. generation the training it needs to cope with the information age; hell, the government doesn’t even provide enough ‘money for .text books, forcing schools to steal copyrights by photocopying books. Meanwhile, unemployment remains at an atrocious level which -N.D.P. committee tovisit Terrace — with the group due to other. com- mitments. mo Committee .chairman Glen and economic development will Clark said the tour is part of the be visiting. the. Terrace area for New Democrats’ plan for devel- three days of meetings with local _ oping strong regional economics, groups and politicians beginning ~ “The key is to involve local Monday, Sept. 30. people in the decision-making process,” he said. | Democratic Party eight-member > Local NDP representative Helmut Giesbrecht said the tour | Giesbrecht said the committee members include Glen Clark will meet with various Terrace (MLA Vancouver East), Chair- interest groups on the morning man and Energy Critic; Dale of Tuesday, Sept. 29, to. be Lovick (MLA* Nanaimo), ‘Fér-“ followed" by'a-no-host lunchéon ries, Science and Technology, with civic leaders and the and Consumer: Affairs Critic, Chamber of Commerce at the Dan Miller (MLA Prince Terrace Hotel. ° . a Rupert), Transportation and Later the same day, he said, Highways Critic; Bob Williams there will be a no-host bar and (MLA Vancouver East), Forest reception in the Skeena Room at and Lands Critic; Anne Ed- the Terrace Hotel at 5:30 p.m. wards (MLA Kootenay), and a public meeting at 7:30 Tourism, Culture and Small p.m. _ Business Critic; Joan On Sept. 30, Edwards, Small- Smallwood (MLA Surrey-Guild- wood and Rose will visit the ford-Whalley), Women’s Hazelton-Smithers area, Clark Economic Issues, Environment, and Lovick will visit Kitimat, Parks and B.C. Transit Critic; and Williams, Miller and Guno Mark Rose (MLA Cogquitlam- will visit various centres in the Moody), Agriculture Critic; and Nass Valley. Larry Guno (MLA Atlin). Further information can be Giesbrecht said NDP leader obtained from Helmut Gies- ‘Mike Harcourt isn’t travelling brecht at 635-4659 or 635-3847. . MMMM MM Hubert Beyer| Canada.”’ prompts a lot of young people to go back to school, but with rising. - tuition fees and an iriadequate student assistance program, whocan — '[. afford a higher education? - . __ This fatl, thousands of students were unable to enroll in courses _ they wanted to take. Sorry, the courses are fully subscribed to. Try again next year. The situation-was so bad that. Stan Hagen, the minister responsible for advanced education and job training, felt compelled to make a public statement... ee The inability of students to be enrolled in‘each and every course they applied for was not a new phenomenon, but the numbers ap- peared to be increased this year, the minister astutely: observed......._. The reason for the run on universities, Hagan said, was a realiza- tion on the part of students that there is a need for skilled and train- - ed people in the workforce. Another factor, he said, was the new financial aid program for students. He called it ‘‘the finest in I consider Hagen the best. of Premier Vander Zalm’s cabinet, but” with all due respect, he’s talking through his hat. The primary reason so many young people are going back to university is the in- ability to either find jobs or to make 4 decent living in this minimum-wage economy. a . As for the student assistance program, it may be the finest in Canada, although I’m not convinced of that either, but a truly ad- 7 vanced society, one that is determined to be-on top ofthe world’s. economic, heap, would make free education universal; not just in primary and secondary schools but in colleges and- universities, - ‘Hagen’s solution? Monitor the situation. As an interim measure, — he wants the colleges and universities to evaluate the courses they offer to determine. whether they really prepare students for the ‘workforce. That’s like appointing a royal commission. A lot will be evaluated and the outcome will be retention of the status quo. ~. So much for the post-secondary education system. At the primary and secondary level, the system is in an even worse quagmire. | About a year ago, I wrote a column condemning the government for turning out a computer-illiterate generation of students. All my 7 efforts got me at the time was an angry letter from the education — - minister, telling me 1 didn’t know what I was talking about. A few months later, however, a light bulb must have gone on in the cabinet room because the government appointed an advisory . committee on computers in the school system, The committee's . report was released a few weeks ago. a ‘Ome: statement~in. the: report “caught ‘my: immiédiate’ attention... “'The ultimate goal is to ensure that all students, at graduation, will have. the skills necessary to function effectively and confidently in “am increasingly complex technological environment,’’ The commit- tee urged the achievement of that goal by 1992, I wonder if the government believes this goal can be reached as long as schools depend on bake sales and bottle drives for the ac- quisition of computers. It certainly seems so. Not only has the government, so far, failed to implement or even announce a major. computer-acquisition program, but it continues to erode the budget for text books. pe Schools throughout the province, but particularly in the large ur- ban centres, are forced to break the law by photocopying text books. If they didn’t, students would be left without even the most rudimentary tools of learning. . While other countries are investing in the future by providing the next generation with the skills essential for economic survival in the information age, our government is still trying to figure out whether. Gutenberg’s invention can be applied to the education system, And speaking of Gutenberg, it bodes ill for education in this province when the advisory committee on computers can’t even get the chap’s name right. It’s Gutenberg, not Gutenburg.