The 1907 school had one room and one teacher with a score of students ranging in ages and grades.
The 2007 version of a rural elementary school may start to resemble that again. As rural school enrolments dwindle, Canadian trustees stave off school closures by placing several grades together.
It can be as much as Grades 1 to 6 all in the same room, a rural Saskatchewan principal said at the National Congress on Rural Education held in Saskatoon.
In a panel discussion March 27 outlining the state of rural education across Canada, several of the speakers noted the trend to classrooms with varying grades.
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Panel moderator Pat Renihan, a University of Saskatchewan education professor, said in an interview that multigrade classrooms should not be regarded as a retreat to the past.
“Nowadays we’re seeing the value of such education in diversity and teaching students who work with each other co-operatively.”
Renihan said it is better than busing students two or more hours a day, “especially young kids who fall asleep on the bus. Think about the quality of their education after long trips.”
All provinces are showing a decline in rural student enrolment, and money is often seen as the way to shore up rural education.
Helen Horsman of the Saskatchewan learning department said that in the past 10 years her province’s education funding has risen 56 percent while total student enrolment has fallen 15 percent.
She said the department has added two factors to its operating grant for school divisions to help rural schools: special payments for geographic factors and for small remote schools.
Alberta also uses special allowances in its school grants, such as funding for “small schools by necessity,” declining enrolment, Hutterite schools and small boards, said Lorraine Steele of the provincial education department.
Nova Scotia provides rural schools with fewer than 100 students a special $100,000 grant for building upkeep.
Julie MacRae of British Columbia told the conference that the education department created a team 18 months ago to discuss rural issues such as an equal quality of education for all students, funding for shared services, improvements for instruction and the need to capitalize on the promise of technology.
She said the department created an on-line community of parents, teachers and students four months ago to discuss rural school issues.
Early comments made on the website have shown that access to courses is the toughest barrier and that rural people have a lot of pride in their communities.
New Brunswick principal Barb Corbett also noted the importance of local problem solving, saying too often provincial department funding is based on a formula.
“I call it the cookie cutter approach. Some schools need chocolate chip cookies, some need Oreos. But we all get ginger snaps.”
Rural schools have been using computers to help fill the gaps where no local teacher has the time or expertise to teach a course, especially math, science and a second language.
(However), “we do hear from parents that they want a teacher standing in front of their children, not a TV,” Steele said.
Manitoba’s Jean-Vianney Auclair said some rural communities don’t have access to high speed internet. Another problem is how to retain rural teachers who have fewer opportunities to receive training.
“A lot of focus has been on declining enrolment and funding,” Auclair said.
“However, we need to talk about building local capacity so communities can solve their own educational problems.”
