British Columbia is significantly increasing classroom space across the province.
The bulk of the new classrooms will be in fast-growing communities in the Lower Mainland, like 91原创, Surrey, Richmond, and Burnaby, but there are new additions in Langford, Colwood, Kelowna, and as far north as Dawson Creek.
Since last fall, the province has funded 104 new classrooms. They're not new schools, though. They're prefabricated additions to existing schools.
For decades, there was only one option when faced with rapid population growth and overcrowded schools. You spent years building new schools from scratch, while housing kids and teachers and staff in clusters of portables. No one enjoyed this.
The pre-fab, modular program launched less than a year ago is being tried out in nine communities. Some of the early modular buildings are arriving already, many will be ready for next fall.
They're fast to build, cheaper than a whole new school, and better than portables. The addition in 91原创, to Richard Bulpitt Elementary, is a two-storey structure with washrooms and air conditioning.
The new additions are expected to be sturdier, more comfortable, and more accessible for students and staff with wheelchairs or mobility issues.
They're also a boon to the bottom line of local school districts. When a new school is built 鈥� including these additions 鈥� the bulk of the funding comes from Victoria. When portables are added, the financial burden falls on local school districts.
Hopefully, all these additions work well, putting more kids in proper classrooms and reducing the number of portables in use across the province.
B.C. has already been putting prefabricated modular construction to use in a few other areas, including temporary housing for the homeless.
If this project works out, it could be a test-bed for a wider market. Prefabricated homes used to be sneered at, but they've come a long way through the past 40 years.
B.C.'s heavy use of portables and its homelessness crisis are both related to the housing crisis. We can't build enough, fast enough, whether schools or homes.
It's just one tool among many, but building our homes, schools, and institutional buildings in factories and snapping them together like LEGO should be seriously considered. If it works, it works.
鈥� M.C.
