Travelling with a Powell River delegation, City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa recently received a first-hand look at the Chinese education system.
With the prospect of Sino Bright School building a 400-student English immersion educational facility adjacent to Brooks Secondary School, a small local contingent travelled to China to meet with educators and to tour educational facilities.
At the Thursday, June 18, city council meeting, Formosa said he was overseas for nine days, travelling for two and spending seven in China.
“It was very gruelling,” he said.
He had been in China about 15 years ago and he said it has come a long way since he was there last. Formosa said the smog is “real” and he only saw the sun and the blue sky twice during his time in China.
Formosa travelled to several schools, including a university school, during his time overseas.
The contingent from Powell River included Shannon Behan, a local educator who has been principal at the Beijing No. 8 Sino Bright School, plus Micki McCartney, the acting principal of Vancouver Island University’s Powell River campus, and Jay Yule, superintendent of schools for School District 47. Also participating were the owners of Sino Bright schools. Formosa said that Behan and Yule toured another set of provinces that Formosa didn’t while he and McCartney headed off to several other cities to see the scope of the organization.
“It was one of those 9 o’clock in the morning shows until 10 o’clock at night, every day,” Formosa said. “We worked a lot and people there work from early in the morning until late at night. We were at the Beijing office at 8 at night and went downstairs. The parking lot was still full of cars and people were still in their offices.”
The students in the schools Formosa toured live onsite. He said he had wondered why Sino Bright wants to build dorms at the school it plans to build in Powell River but now has a better understanding.
“That’s the way they have school there,” he said. “If the students live close enough they go home on weekends and if not they stay. Some of these are little children. They start school at 7:30 am and finish at 8 pm, six days a week. They sleep for two hours in the afternoon.
“Education is huge there.”
Formosa said parents are insistent their children are well educated and children have to get a good education so they can get to North America. That’s why the Sino Bright program has a good chance of coming to Powell River.
“I now understand the Sino Bright model very well,” Formosa said. “They are a school within a school. They go to a school that is an English Immersion school in a Chinese school. The courses are geared toward the British Columbia Dogwood Certificate program, taught by some Chinese, but mostly Canadian teachers.”
Formosa said there are pictures of BC’s premier and education minister in the Sino Bright office. BC education officials spent time in the Sino Bright system before they would provide sanction to run a parallel system in China to the BC education system.
The students want to come to Canada and Powell River, Formosa said. He met with parents and one investor. He also met with a principal and he was able to see the footprint of what Sino Bright Schools wants to build in Powell River.
“It’s actually much more than we were led to believe,” he said. “It’s actually a full college that they anticipate building here.”
Formosa said he had an opportunity to talk with a high-ranking educator while in Beijing, who is a motivator and advocate of building the college in Powell River.
“He told me: ‘If you can do all of your work in Powell River and get all of this property ready for us to build a school, I am now dedicated to build the college and I will bring the investors if we have the paperwork and the agreements with the province and the city. I will bring my backers and partners and funding will not be the issue. The issue will be on your end.’
“It was kind of a challenge. He’s been here once and he will be coming back, probably when we make a submission to the Agricultural Land Commission.”
