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Part One: Introduction

Part Three: Living
in Vancouver

Part Four: City
Government and
Public Participation

Schools and Education

The Vancouver School Board (VSB), a municipally elected body funded by the Province, is responsible for schools and education in Vancouver. The VSB, with 56,000 students, is one of the largest school districts in BC. The VSB has 91 elementary schools and 18 secondary schools. There are schools close to, or in, each neighbourhood of the city. The VSB has a yearly operating budget of more than $350 million and employs more than 3,200 teachers and staff.

The Federation of Independent Schools Association (Tel: 604-684-6023, www.fisabc.ca) is an umbrella organization which offers information regarding private schools, including Catholic schools, in the Province. The Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (Francophone Education Authority of BC, Tel: 1-888-715-2200) is an independent school board that provides French programming to students who have French as a first language.

Registering for schools

For information about schools for your children or courses for adult education, call the Vancouver School Board at 604-713-5000. The VSB web site is www.vsb.bc.ca. The District Reception and Placement Centre at 1000 East 59th Avenue in the East Wing of Moberly Elementary School (Tel: 604-713-5999) evaluates new students for placement in classes.

Multicultural Liaison Workers at schools provide parents and children with additional help in communicating with school staff. In Vancouver, staff speak the following languages:

• Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi, Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese, Khmer, Korean.

The Vancouver School Board also has Aboriginal Liaison Workers to assist with aboriginal students.

VSB Community Education Services (CES)

Community Education Services (CES) has more than 2,000 programs for adult education and special courses. There are special courses for all ages, for people trying to get into college or university, and also classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) for beginner to advanced levels. Call CES at 604-713-4500 or visit their web site at:www.continuinged.ca

CES offers courses in many languages, including Cantonese, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Sign Language and Spanish.

Colleges and Universities in Vancouver:

• British Columbia Institute of Technology
  Tel: 604-434-5734
  www.bcit.ca
  
  
• Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
  Tel: 604-844-3800
  www.eciad.bc.ca
  
  
• Langara College
  Tel: 604-323-5686
  www.langara.bc.ca
  
  
• Simon Fraser University
  Harbour Centre: Tel: 604-291-5000
  www.sfu.ca
  
  
• University of British Columbia
  Tel: 604-822-2211
  www.ubc.ca
  
  
• Vancouver Community College
  Tel: 604-871-7000
  www.vcc.ca

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© 2002, City of Vancouver, Community Services, Social Planning
Last Modified: Wednesday, July 6, 2011