The province of British Columbia in Canada is divided into 60 school districts which administer publicly funded education until the end of grade 12 in local areas or, in the case of francophone education, across the province.
Many school districts were in existence prior to British Columbia joining Canada in 1871. Some districts were just single schools or even one teacher. Traditionally school districts in British Columbia were either municipal, which were named after the municipality such as Vancouver or Victoria, or rural and given a regional name. Many districts' names are a legacy of this pattern. In 1946, the Ministry of Education rearranged the province's 650 school districts into 74, giving each a number and a name. [1] The school districts were numbered geographically starting in the southeast corner and proceeding in a counter-clockwise pattern. This has been disrupted by successive changes to districts. The most recent changes occurred in April 1996 with the restructuring and reduction in the number of school districts from 74 to 57. [2]
Old school district | New school district |
---|---|
1 Fernie, 2 Cranbrook | 5 Southeast Kootenay |
3 Kimberley, 4 Windermere, 18 Golden | 6 Rocky Mountain |
7 Nelson, 86 Creston-Kaslo | 8 Kootenay Lake |
9 Castlegar, 11 Trail | 20 Kootenay-Columbia |
12 Grand Forks, 13 Kettle Valley | 51 Boundary |
14 Southern Okanagan, 16 Keremeos | 53 Okanagan Similkameen |
17 Princeton, 31 Merritt | 58 Nicola-Similkameen |
15 Penticton, 77 Summerland | 67 Okanagan Skaha |
24 Kamloops, 26 North Thompson | 73 Kamloops/Thompson |
29 Lillooet, 30 South Cariboo | 74 Gold Trail |
32 Hope, 76 Agassiz-Harrison | 78 Fraser-Cascade |
65 Cowichan, 66 Lake Cowichan | 79 Cowichan Valley |
80 Kitimat, 88 Terrace | 82 Coast Mountains |
21 Armstrong-Spallumcheen, 89 Shuswap | 83 North Okanagan-Shuswap |
55 Burns Lake, 56 Nechako | 91 Nechako Lakes |
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada. Situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains. British Columbia borders the province of Alberta to the east; the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north; the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho and Montana to the south, and Alaska to the northwest. With an estimated population of over 5.6 million as of 2024, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, while the province's largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver and its suburbs together make up the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, with the 2021 census recording 2.6 million people in Metro Vancouver. British Columbia is Canada's third-largest province in terms of total area, after Quebec and Ontario.
Vancouver is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Metro Vancouver area had a population of 2.6 million in 2021, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Greater Vancouver, along with the Fraser Valley, comprises the Lower Mainland with a regional population of over 3 million. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,700 people per square kilometre, and fourth highest in North America.
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
New Westminster is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and continued in that role until the Mainland and Island colonies were merged in 1866. It was the British Columbia Mainland's largest city from that year until it was passed in population by Vancouver during the first decade of the 20th century.
Chilliwack is a city of about 100,000 people and 261 km2 (100 sq mi) in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located about 100 km (62 mi) east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the greater metropolitan area. It is the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in Canada.
West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Bay and the southeast shore of Howe Sound, and is adjoined by the District of North Vancouver to its east. Together with the District of North Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver, it is part of a local regional grouping referred to as the North Shore municipalities, or simply "the North Shore".
The history of British Columbia covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day British Columbia were inhabited for millennia by a number of First Nations.
Salmon Arm is a city in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District of the Southern Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia that has a population of 17,706 (2016). Salmon Arm was incorporated as a municipal district on May 15, 1905. The city of Salmon Arm separated from the district in 1912, but was downgraded to a village in 1958. In 1970, the city of Salmon Arm once again reunited with the District Municipality. Salmon Arm once again became a city in 2005, and is now the location of the head offices of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District. It is a tourist town in the summer, with many beaches, camping facilities and house boat rentals. Salmon Arm is home to the longest wooden freshwater wharf in North America.
The Vancouver School Board (VSB), officially the Board of Education of School District No. 39 (Vancouver), is a school district based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A board of nine elected trustees governs this school district that serves the city of Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands.
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, bordered by the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 944,735 km2 (364,764 sq mi) it is Canada's third-largest province. The province is almost four times the size of the United Kingdom and larger than every United States state except Alaska. It is bounded on the northwest by the U.S. state of Alaska, directly north by Yukon and the Northwest Territories, on the east by Alberta, and on the south by the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Formerly part of the British Empire, the southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The province is dominated by mountain ranges, among them the Canadian Rockies but dominantly the Coast Mountains, Cassiar Mountains, and the Columbia Mountains. Most of the population is concentrated on the Pacific coast, notably in the area of Vancouver, located on the southwestern tip of the mainland, which is known as the Lower Mainland. It is the most mountainous province of Canada.
The history of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one that extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. With its location on the western coast of Canada near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries, Vancouver has – for thousands of years – been a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950.
Cortes Island is an island in the Discovery Islands archipelago on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The island is 25 km (16 mi) long, 13 km (8 mi) wide, and 130 km2 (50 sq mi) in area. It has a population of 1,035 permanent residents. Cortes Island lies within Electoral Area B of the Strathcona Regional District, which provides water and sewage systems, fire protection, land use planning, parks, recreation, and emergency response.
Lund is a small craft harbour and unincorporated village on Tla'amin land in qathet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is along the northern part of the Salish Sea on the mainland BC coast. The main landmark in the village is the Lund Hotel, established in 1905. By boat from Lund, the Copeland Islands and Desolation Sound, are nearby. Lund is home to many shops and services including a general store, a restaurant overlooking the water, kayak and adventure tourism stores, and Nancy's Bakery, a favourite of locals and tourists.
Higher education in British Columbia is delivered by 25 publicly funded institutions that are composed of eleven universities, eleven colleges, and three institutes. This is in addition to three private universities, five private colleges, and six theological colleges. There are also an extensive number of private career institutes and colleges. Over 297,000 students were enrolled in post-secondary institutions in British Columbia in the 2019-2020 academic year.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to British Columbia:
The history of Chinese Canadians in British Columbia began with the first recorded visit by Chinese people to North America in 1788. Some 30–40 men were employed as shipwrights at Nootka Sound in what is now British Columbia, to build the first European-type vessel in the Pacific Northwest, named the North West America. Large-scale immigration of Chinese began seventy years later with the advent of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858. During the gold rush, settlements of Chinese grew in Victoria and New Westminster and the "capital of the Cariboo" Barkerville and numerous other towns, as well as throughout the colony's interior, where many communities were dominantly Chinese. In the 1880s, Chinese labour was contracted to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Following this, many Chinese began to move eastward, establishing Chinatowns in several of the larger Canadian cities.
The South Asian community in British Columbia was first established in 1897. The first immigrants originated from Punjab, British India, a northern region and state in modern-day India and Pakistan. Punjabis originally settled in rural British Columbia at the turn of the twentieth century, working in the forestry and agricultural industries.
Education in British Columbia comprises public and private primary and secondary schools throughout the province. Like most other provinces in Canada, education is compulsory from ages 6–16, although the vast majority of students remain in school until they graduate from high school at the age of 18. In 2020, 86% of students in British Columbia graduated from high school within six years of entering grade 8. It is also common for children to attend kindergarten at the age of 5, it is increasingly common for even younger children to attend pre-school or early learning programs before their formal school age years.