In recent years, governments in Canada have made repeated cuts to public education funding. These cuts have led, among other outcomes, to dissatisfaction with the public education system. Private interest groups have fostered this dissatisfaction for their own purposes.
One of the results of this dissatisfaction is the increase in the number of private schools in B. C., and the number of offshore schools offering B. C. curriculum to their students. These schools are, of course, for profit.
I am a teacher on call ("supply teacher" or "substitute teacher"). On more than one occasion, I have created original curriculum items when called to teach. I am sure that regularly employed teachers create their own material much more often than I do. It is likely that at least some of this material eventually finds its way into the B. C. curriculum. In other words, much of that curriculum has been created by teachers. They are not paid any additional income for this work. However, private companies profit from it by collecting fees for offering taxpayer-funded material to their students. The B. C. curriculum is apparently highly-respected outside Canada and attracts many students.
B. C. schools are increasingly offering International Baccalaureate (IB) programs to B. C. and out-of-country students. It is a reasonable (inescapable?) conclusion that this occurs because of real or purported deficiencies in the B. C. curriculum, surely a contradiction of the preceding paragraph. This is not, of course, to deny the qualities which IB may (probably does) possess. What does happen, however, is that B. C. teachers not only create curriculum content which (as above) is used by others for their own profit with no credit given or benefit accruing to the teachers who at least sometimes created the educational material. Teachers, therefore, are expected to gain competence in the additional material and (presumably) different pedagogical approach embodied in IB, on their own time and without any additional income as a result of their efforts.
This is how the situation appears to me. There may easily be further information or insights which might help me consider the matter in a different light.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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