Education Minister Don Morgan. Photo courtesy Saskatchewan.ca
Saskatchewan’s education minister has some high praise for a program in North Battleford aimed at increasing graduation rates for Aboriginal students.
Don Morgan was in the city on Wednesday. He was highlighting the Gateway to Success program.
It’s a program the Living Sky School Division says has been increasing Aboriginal graduation rates in the division since 2013.
Gateway to Success was formed three years ago through a partnership between Living Sky and the Treaty 6 Education Council, with funding through the province’s Invitational Shared Services Initiative.
The program offers Aboriginal students additional supports in order to help them succeed.
“We are seeing students that are staying in school longer, coming back to school and increasing graduation rates, so we are really pleased with the program,” said Morgan.
The education minister says he is trying to highlight successful educational programs as another school year gets underway.
“We know that the province has some financial troubles right now, but this is one of the programs that we are very supportive of and it is producing some very good results for students in our province,” he said.
Morgan says the program is one of many that will help the province meet its goal of reaching a 50 percent graduation rate for First Nations students. In 2015, the government made a goal to reach that benchmark by 2020.
“We are on the way towards that and if we don’t meet it we will reanalyze what we need to do to meet it,” he said. “But once we meet that goal, we will look at how we can raise it further.”
Morgan also says they will be reviewing any other programs that may help with this goal on a case-by-case basis.
According to Morgan, the current graduation rate for First Nations students is above 40 percent.