Education program revived in Fort Liard
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Liard (Nov 10/00) - With a co-operative initiative between education officials, adults in Fort Liard once again have a chance to upgrade their schooling in their home town.
Aurora College has forged an agreement with the Deh Cho Divisional Education Council to have senior high and Adult Basic Education (ABE) offered in Aurora College's Community Learning Centre.
Senior high teacher Pat May, who already had 14 students in Grades 10-12, agreed to take in the additional adult students.
Ten people have taken advantage of the program, which began on Oct. 30. Only a few of them regularly show up for class because some are pursuing their GED while working full-time.
"Most of it is self-directed study," May explained.
"For the GED, because it is from a book and they can follow it, they call me at home if necessary or come in when they can. They come in a minimum of once a week."
The arrangement is in place until Dec. 15 at which time Aurora College will determine whether the interest is sufficient enough to continue through to June.
"If not, as I said to them, I'll just continue it myself," May said.
Adult Basic Education involves instruction for those with as low as a Grade 5 level education, but generally there is a great deal of overlap with what the senior high students are already learning, she acknowledged. It's all manageable, she said.
"Oh yeah, it's no problem. We're sort of laid back here. We do the best we can," she said.
Another advantage to the agreement is that the senior high students get to return to the independent schoolhouse setting -- adjacent to the recreation centre -- that they were in last year.
Several computers have been installed in the building for joint use by the students.
May said she admires the initiative of those who are striving for higher learning despite other commitments.
"If they're working full-time ... it's pretty hard, especially if you've got family," she said.
"I'm just very impressed that they're making an effort to come back and do it."
