B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond donned a hockey jersey and grabbed a skipping rope Tuesdsay to promote the new physical education requirements. (CBC)

As students headed back to school after summer break Tuesday, B.C.'s education minister was facing both new and familiar challenges for the coming school year.

This academic year is the first in which students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 are required to partake in at least 30 minutes of physical activity each day.

B.C. Teacher's Federation President Irene Lanzinger argued the new rules would be difficult to police and could even take time away from academic learning.

"Whatever you add to the curriculum, you have to take something out. So, what is being sacrificed here? Is it reading? Is it writing? Is it social studies, science, mathematics?" Lanzinger said. "You add half an hour of something to the day, you have to stop doing something else for half an hour."

However, Education Minister Shirley Bond disagreed.

"This is not about taking away what happens in classrooms. It's about enhancing opportunities," she said.

School fees continue to cause confusion

As parents throughout the province hit the stores to shop for pencils and binders for their youngsters, it was still unclear whether parents should legally be responsible for purchasing those items.

Technically, school boards are prohibited from charging for any equipment or materials required to finish a course leading to graduation, but many districts, including the Vancouver School District, do require students to pay for things like school supplies, agendas, lockers and graduation materials.

According to a 2006 B.C. Supreme Court ruling, however, such fees, as well as charging for field trips considered necessary to the curriculum, contravene the B.C. School Act.

The ruling came out of two court challenges launched by Victoria School Board trustee John Young.

"A parent may send a child to school without even a pencil and paper and the school has to provide absolutely everything that a child needs to proceed through school to graduation without fees of any kind for any purpose whatsoever," Young said.

At the start of each academic year, many B.C. students are given a list of supplies, including pencils and notebooks, they will need for the school year.

It's still unclear whether asking students to assume the cost of those supplies is in keeping with the law.

Young is adamant that those school districts that require students to pay for supplies are ignoring the ruling and the B.C. School Act.

There are no standard school supply fees charged in the province. Instead, it is up to each individual school board to decide which costs will be assumed by students and which by the school. All have built-in "hardship clauses" for families that cannot afford supplies or extras.

Laurie Anderson of the Vancouver School District said all of the costs her district asks students to pay themselves are in compliance with the B.C. School Act but admitted many parents are still confused.

"Clarity on this with everybody is something we're constantly working on in our schools," she said.

However, Young said charging for any supplies means the B.C. government and the school boards are in contempt of court.

He plans to go back to court and argue that the education minister is violating the constitution and poor children are the ones suffering because of school fees.

"I'll see her [Education Minister Shirley Bond] in court because she should be issuing orders to school boards to stop what they are doing, [i.e.]charging fees," he said.