Local teachers are reeling after the province recently announced the closure of the Manitoba Curriculum Support Centre and the move to an online database.

"The centre has been really good for all of the rural divisions... it's been a major resource for teachers," Garden Valley School Division Assistant Superintendent Janice Krahn says. "Unfortunately we won't have it anymore."

In a letter, the province explained, after reviewing the situation, the decision was made to modernize the centre from a physical location to create "more equitable online access to educators, bringing Manitoba in line with the rest of the provinces across Canada."

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen explains the current model sees a low volume, "whereas the online version will be easily accessible to all teachers across Manitoba."

He notes current online streaming videos and electronic journals continue to be available and new resources will continually be added.

The centre, located in Winnipeg, facilitated the sharing of books and other materials curated to line up with the Manitoba curriculum. The resources were also accessible to Manitoba's home school educators.

"A school can't possibly afford all the resources that are out there, let's say your class is doing a research project on a number of different of topics, you can't have all the books there for them, so you could call the Manitoba Curriculum Support Centre and they would look for appropriate books, they'd send them out to you, and you'd have a wide variety to look at."

Krahn says the service was extensively used by GVSD teachers and librarians both for their classes and for professional development tools. "It will be a huge loss."

The Manitoba School Library Association spoke against the closure, saying the centre remains a valuable service to Manitoba educators.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont notes nearly 10,000 teachers across the province use the resource, and switching to an online-only database would create barriers for communities like Flin Flon that don't have access to high-speed Internet.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society also balked at the move, saying the government did not consult with stakeholders before making the cut. "We are frankly shocked that Manitoba teachers had no input into such a pivotal decision, especially during an education review that was billed as wide-open and free of pre-conceived ideas," says MTS President Norm Gould.

Gould says moving core resources that teachers use to an online format may have pros and cons. "But the fact that the Society, which represents more than 15,000 professional educators across the province, was not informed nor consulted is disrespectful and an act of bad faith."

It had cost the province $1.7 million to operate the centre.