The B.C. government is defending the pace of its buildout of schools in Surrey as students in the province’s most populous school district prepare to head back to the classroom.

Surrey’s school enrolment hit more than 83,000 last year, an increase of 1,500 from the year before, and the district has been forced to get increasingly creative with ways to house them.

Eight schools have already moved to extended day schedules, and this year some Grade 10 through Grade 11 students will take partially remote classes through a new hybrid learning pilot project.

On Tuesday, the NDP government announced it was opening 700 new student seats in the district, including 400 in a new addition to Woodland Park Elementary, along with 100 new seats at Walnut Road Elementary and Theresa Clarke Elementary.

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