Skip to content

LETTER: Surrey school district's German teacher is truly dedicated

The Editor,

I write as a concerned parent of two children in the Surrey school district. Last year, both my children enrolled in German 10 via Surrey Connect. This is the only way to study the German language in the district as no school offers actual classes. Our daughter quickly completed the course and our son was working toward completion by August 2014. Both planned to take German 11 in 2014.

At the end of last year, it was announced that, due to low enrolment in Surrey Connect as a whole, five teachers would be reassigned within the district. These are the five teachers with the least seniority, not those with the low enrolment courses. Unfortunately, this means that the only teacher of German in our school district will be reassigned and will no longer be teaching German.

One day, I spent hours at Surrey Connect watching this teacher valiantly working to allow as many students as possible to complete their exams before the Friday deadline.

Students have been greatly disadvantaged as they have had their study time truncated and I am aware that not all students are actually going to be able to complete their courses. Even those who do complete will have no further opportunity to study German unless they attend a private school or hire a tutor.

I wish to express our extreme gratitude to Frau Kostamo for all her efforts to support our son completing German 10 and our sorrow that this important area of study is no longer available in Surrey's school district.

Dr. Jen Marchbank, Surrey