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The Educational Research Institute of British Columbia (ERIBC) was founded in 1967. The institute was a successor agency, to the British Columbia Educational Research Council, an independent association established in 1956 to promote educational research and provide a repository for educational research studies. Based at the University of British Columbia, the council originally consisted of representatives from UBC's Faculty of Education, the British Columbia Parent Teachers Federation, the British Columbia School Trustees' Association (BCSTA) and the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF). The activities of the council gradually increased as representatives of various schools and school districts were brought in as "supporting members." However, the council was not able to provide services, facilities or funding for educational research to any great extent. Accordingly in 1964 the BCSTA members moved that a new centralized organization to be known as the Educational Research Institute of British Columbia be formed to succeed the council. The resolution was supported by the BCTF and the ERIBC was duly created and incorporated as a nonprofit society in 1967. The main objectives of the institute were to: survey the educational research needs of the province; promote research in education; carry out research on educational issues of broad social implications liase and make available the findings of the educational research studies to all interested educational organizations; act as a 'clearinghouse' of educational research studies being undertaken in British Columbia by issuing suitable publications. During its early years, the ERIBC was principally concerned with raising and providing funds to individuals 1) most of whom were teachers or school administrators. But the mandate of the institute soon widened. In the 1970s it began receiving nonstatutory grants from the provincial government to conduct workshops in small school districts; it was asked to provide reports and assessments of school curricula; it provided contractual reports on special education programmes and advised on a variety of other educational matters. In the 1980s the ERIBC also acted as a technical agency for the Ministry of Education in devising and implementing provincewide Grade 12 examinations. In 1982 the institute amended its constitution to reflect its increased activities. Membership on the ERIBC's Board of Directors was correspondingly broadened to include representatives from the three provincial universities, the B.C. Home and School Federation, the B.C. Association of Colleges, the Association of British Columbia School Superintendents, and the Federation of Independent School Associations, as well as the BCTF and the BCSTA. The economic recession of the 1980s, however, and the provincial government's "fiscal restraint" policies seriously curtailed the ERIBC's activities. The main blow came in Dec 1985 when the government decided to withdraw the grants and the contracts which it had provided to the institute. When other sources of funding and support did not develop, the Board of Directors reluctantly decided to wind up their operations. The ERIBC was dissolved effective 31 Mar 1986. Just before the institute closed, Mrs. Audrey Sojonky, Executive Director of the ERIBC, offered to donate the institute's administrative records to the Provincial Archives. Mrs. Sojonky and the Board of Directors also agreed to turn over the institute's operational records, including its impressive collection of research reports. In so doing, the ERIBC directors wished to continue to facilitate educational research in the province. MS-2209 consists of the complete records of the ERIBC. Included are the institute's minutes (along with minutes of the B.C. Educational Research Council), policy manuals, grant application guidelines, institute research reports (written by ERIBC staff), and contractual research reports. The educational research reports which form the bulk of MS-2209 deal with schools in all parts of the province and cover a remarkably wide and diverse range of topics. Together they constitute one of the most important sources for the study of educational policies and programmes in British Columbia.