Two of the targets for K-12 education laid out in the provincial government's Plan for Growth are to reduce the gap in graduation rates between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students by 50 per cent and to lead the country in Grade 12 graduation rates by 2020. At the same time, school divisions are expected to find significant financial efficiencies (the government has already reduced their budgets in expectation of these efficiencies) with no guarantee any further savings they find won't be clawed back. The government has also allowed only 1.4 per cent for inflation, while experts say inflation is close to two per cent - if not more. It's been suggested the lean agenda can only be advanced so far within the education system before the only significant savings that can be found will mean staff cuts.
In addition, in recent years there has been a paradigm shift in Saskatchewan's education system. The focus is no longer on what the teacher is teaching, but what the learner is learning. The outcomes-based focus that includes making students more accountable for their own responsibilities - and tracking those results - has the potential to increase student success and therefore graduation rates. But it also has the potential to catch out some students who were able to previously skate by. At North Battleford Comprehensive High School, 2013-14 students were strongly reminded of a new policy that having outstanding assignments would mean missing a credit, which could remove their eligibility to graduate.
With higher expectations, fewer dollars and the possibility of fewer people to meet some rather ambitious goals, it's not surprising school boards are asking, "Isn't it time to review what graduation is?"
Why 24 credits? Why these particular 24 credits?
The very question came up at a recent meeting of Living Sky School Division Board of Education members and administration with Minister of Education Don Morgan.
Making it easier for students to graduate would certainly help meet the 2020 goals, but it's unthinkable that Saskatchewan educators, parents or legislators would move to lower the quality of education just to play a numbers game.
So, if lowering the bar is out of the question, how about changing it?
How many of today's students drop out because the typical Canadian high school education is irrelevant to their present and, as far as they can determine, to their future as well?
In Europe, it's common to find two- or even three-stream secondary education systems. Students of different abilities and aspirations can graduate from secondary school at the same time as their cohorts, but with different knowledge and skills appropriate to their next steps in life, such as moving directly into employment if that's their choice or the reality of their circumstances.
Construction workers, plumbers, welders, cabinet makers and carpenters, electricians, sheet metal workers and more - Canadian employers are crying for skilled workers. What if significantly more graduates had already begun developing the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully apprentice in one of the 49 designated trades and 20 subtrades to choose from in Saskatchewan. Better yet, what if significantly more students were able to enter apprenticeships prior to graduation, building a career two, three or even four years ahead of their cohorts?
It's an issue that speaks directly to the gap in graduation rates between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, and the gap in how many years it takes to acquire all the credits necessary. Aboriginal students are more likely to take four or five years to graduate than non-aboriginal students.
Typically, today's high school graduate has three things to look forward to in terms of employment: trying to find work right away without the skills necessary to get a decent-paying job; signing up for two to seven more years of schooling and possibly taking on some hefty student loans to attain a better-paying career; or giving up on either.
If you are an aboriginal person living in the Battlefords or area, option number one is further challenged by cultural differences, if not outright racial intolerance. Option two is a challenge for its financial burden (contrary to Canadian myth, not every aboriginal person gets a "free" secondary education and many are ineligible for provincial student loans). Owing to the challenges of one and two, option three all too often wins out. And that's if you've graduated at all. If you've dropped out, even option one may be near to impossible.
We have to admit our Canadian education system has evolved from an old-fashioned, class-oriented and, let's face it, Caucasian ideal - that high school is a preparation for post-secondary education. When high schools were introduced to Saskatchewan, they were basically the grooming grounds for future teachers or gifted individuals who would, and could afford, to move on to higher levels of learning. The compulsory areas of study to graduate high school in Saskatchewan today differ little from those times. Today's compulsories encompass English, math, social studies (or native studies), history, science, arts and physical education. Competency in these subjects does indeed suggest college or university is the next step.
But what if that's not your most realistic option, or you'd rather pound a hammer than a keyboard?
While it may be true that composite and comprehensive high schools do offer programming in vocational and technical training, not every high school in the province is a composite or comprehensive. Federal money was the catalyst behind adding vocational and technical training to high schools in the second half of the last century, but in 1965 the Parliament passed the Adult Occupational Training Act and the focus was switched to programming for adults.
It's true that on the provincial level there is a program for early entry by high school students into apprenticeships, but it answers to the Minister of the Economy, not the Minister of Education.
It may be time to look at alternative pathways to graduation, not just so our numbers look good, but so our students who aren't planning to go to university can get on with the business of their lives.
