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Students scrambling as Burnaby’s biggest ESL school shutting down

Hundreds of students and long-term teachers are being forced to look elsewhere for lessons and work as the city’s biggest ESL school is shutting down.
ESL
English classes for newcomers to Canada were being funded in Burnaby by the federal government.

Hundreds of students and long-term teachers are being forced to look elsewhere for lessons and work as the city’s biggest ESL school is shutting down.

A posting on the Burnaby English Language Centre website says the school will be closed by the end of February.

The school is funded through the federal Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ministry.

The news is a blow for newcomers in Burnaby who had close access to the school’s programs.

The notice on the site refers people to programs in Surrey and Vancouver.

That isn’t sitting well with one Burnaby resident, who told the NOW his wife attends the Burnaby school. She’s going to likely have to travel much farther from home now.

“Apparently the teachers, some who have been working there for 20-plus years, do not have yet a new place to work, and the students (will) be relocated to other schools far from Metrotown area,” said the man, who didn't want his name used.

For more information, visit the school’s website here.