"Can you See Me Now" tour --- Christy Clark touches down in Kamloops

Christy Clark's, "Can you See Me Now" tour dropped into Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops today.  The purpose???  To announce the government has, "... a goal of increasing the number of international students by 50 per cent over four years.”

She stated that the province will bring this about through: 

• an international education council to help build strong relationships in both existing and emerging economies, like China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. 
• by leveraging B.C.’s trade offices to help connect international students to B.C.’s educational opportunities. 
• by working with communities to prepare them to welcome students from abroad.
• by strengthening the Province’s Education Quality Assurance.
• and by sending more B.C. students overseas to prepare them to work in a global economy.

She also stated that, “International students who study in B.C. create thousands of jobs and bring millions of dollars into local economies.  Our universities are job creators. We are setting clear targets to dramatically increase the number of international students coming to B.C. These students will also help build strong relationships between B.C., Canada and the rest of the world.”

SHE … her government … plans to increase international student enrollment by 50%  -- I find that interesting.

Getting an education …

In recent days there have been several stories in the news around education, and issues surrounding it.  The first that caught my attention was a story in what used to be called the Georgia Strait – and is now simply the Strait. 

The story was titled “Advocates push for school lunch program funding in BC”.    In the story, nutrition crusader Lisa Werring said that that about a third of elementary-school kids in Canada don’t eat a daily breakfast.  This information came from a study released last year by Breakfast for Learning.  This organizations view is that hungry kids can’t learn (no argument from me), which is why it gave out $131,675 for school breakfast programs in BC in 2009.

Now I am not going to say that low income families are wasting their money (although some do just like everyone else), but a healthy and nutritious breakfast of regular oatmeal (not individual flavored packets) is just pennies a day.  A four litre jug of milk is $4.00 and how many cups of milk do you get from that … and then an apple, an orange, or banana.