The Prince Albert Catholic School Division says graduation rates for First Nation, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) students at Ecole St. Mary School are outperforming the provincial results.
Director of education Lorel Trumier explained that the division was pleased to see the results.
“I think the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth really was an impetus for us to just continue to get better. Our staff and our families and our students and everybody just did so much to get there. We are pretty excited about the results; obviously we are never satisfied until it is 100 per cent graduating. But we do everything we can do to make this better every year,” she said.
In 2008, the province graduated 47 per cent of FNMI students completing Grade 12 in five years. At that time, Prince Albert Catholic graduated 58 per cent. In 2020, the division saw graduation results of FNMI students completing Grade 12 in five years hit 81 per cent.
Former Premier Brad Wall introduced the Government of Saskatchewan’s Plan for Growth, which set a target to include: “Recognizing that the first step in increasing employment of First Nations and Métis people in Saskatchewan is improving education outcomes, the Government of Saskatchewan will reduce the Grade 12 graduation disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in the K-12 system by 50 per cent by 2020.”
When this was announced school division staff and the staff at Ecole St. Mary, began the process of looking ways we could support our First Nation, Metis and Inuit students to reach graduation.
Trumier explained that since 2008 the rates at Ecole St. Mary continued to improve annually.
“It continued the upward trend for graduation rates. In 2008 for students graduating in three years was 48 per cent and what we have now graduating in three years is 68 per cent. So that has improved by 20 per cent. In 2008, students graduating when they have a little more time was at 68 per cent and now we are at 81 per cent,” she said.
“This story is a story of persistence and dedication. We want to celebrate our First Nation, Metis and Inuit students, families and staff,” Board Chair Suzanne Stubbs said in a release.
