Surrey Schools Face Capacity Crisis

Photo Credit: Lauren Collins/Surrey Now-Leader

Facing a rapidly growing population, Surrey schools are struggling. Students must contend with chronic overcrowding, learn in portables, attend class at irregular times, and make do with limited course-selection options. District officials have urged the province for billions in new funds, but funding commitments have yet to meet their demands.  

Nearly 400 portable classrooms — with a total of 7,750 students — have wbeen built across the District as cost-effective, short-term solutions to overcrowding. However, teachers and parents are concerned by the units’ poor ventilation, archaic setups, and lack of air conditioning — which they say ultimately harms learning outcomes.

"I've had teachers actually to start in bring in fans ... fans from their own homes," said Daniel Barton, a teacher at Kwantlen Park Secondary, in an interview with CBC News. 

Surrey parent Athena Adam added, “My oldest one in high school says she can’t concentrate […]  and she doesn’t know what to do because it is really hot.”

Such issues have prompted the district to collaborate with Fraser Health in implementing protocols that aim to limit the effects of exhaustion and nausea for staff and students in portables, spokesperson Ritinder Matthew told CBC News. At 33 degrees Celsius, students and teachers are required to work 15 minutes at “rest effort” per hour, while temperatures above 39 degrees Celsius prompt all work to be conducted at “rest effort.”

Meanwhile, Kristoffer Jugueta, an architectural designer, is concerned that the portables’ designs decrease classroom productivity.

“Portable classrooms were designed about 20-40 years ago, and they've had no updates,” he said in a statement. Portable configuration is similar to the one-room schoolhouse classroom, he added, where students all face the same direction. This design discourages group work and flexibility, and can result in a lack of motivation in today’s students, he says, who may lose interest in class activities and struggle to collaborate.

However, the impacts of overcrowding are not confined to portables.  

In 2023, a focus group of students from Surrey high schools met to discuss their experiences in overcrowded schools. A report chronicling their discussion was published, allowing the students to remain anonymous.

In their discussion, the students described a lack of access to teachers and resources, due to the high number of students. One of the group’s members said that even online communication with teachers was strained, let alone in-person discourse.

“It’s tough for teachers, too. There are just too many students to get everything done,” another student added.

The report also highlighted that, in some instances, multiple classes are taught in the same room and students may have limited options when selecting courses.

“When everything is filled to capacity, you don’t have the same choices for courses,” an anonymous student said.

Hallways and cafeterias are crowded, reducing teachers’ ability to enforce rules and monitor students, and impacting the overall school environment.

“I think younger kids are feeling a little scared or not welcomed. There’s just too many [students]. They can feel lost,” another student said.

To increase capacity, six Surrey schools have added an extra block of grade 10–12 courses to each school-day. This has forced some students to take an extended mid-day break from classes, since students only attend four blocks per day. 

Cindy Dalglish’s daughter is at one of these schools. “I don’t think the district had a choice,” she told CTV News. “They are doing the best of the worst-case scenario to all of the options.”

Dalglish says that it’s difficult for her daughter to adjust to the new schedule — which changes day by day – because she works a part-time job. However, she’s thankful that her daughter isn’t enrolled in one of the several overflow schools across the district, and can instead attend class at the school closest to home.

Faced with the growing challenge, Surrey City Council declared a “state of school infrastructure crisis” in 2023.

"The state of school infrastructure in Surrey has reached a crisis level," said Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke in a statement. "Our schools are facing a dire situation. We need action and investment in building more schools in Surrey now."

In September, the province announced a school capital investment of $3.75 billion over the next three years, which will flow to school districts across the province. While the sum is a record-high for BC, according to the Surrey School District, $5.03 billion is needed over the next five years to combat overcrowding and remove portables.

However, overcrowding and underfunding are pertinent problems in many of the province’s 60 other school districts. Per capita, Surrey has the eighth highest portable-usage in the province. As a result, the government’s investment will likely be spread across a multitude of districts.

“The growth isn’t just in Surrey — we are the biggest, we are growing the most, but we see growth in Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, Kamloops, and Kelowna,” said Trustee Bob Holmes in a statement to Peace Arch News. “[3.75 billion] is not going to go far and it’s certainly not going to do what we need.”

Former BC Minister of Education Rachna Singh, whose riding was in Surrey, said her government is committed to tackling the issue, but provided few details. “We are taking urgent action in Surrey and finding innovative solutions to make sure schools get the classroom [environments] they need,” she told reporters.