The Saskatchewan Party government has tasked school divisions in the province with improving the educational outcomes of First Nations and Métis students.
School divisions with more than 100 Aboriginal students will now be required to submit a plan outlining how they aim to improve the outcomes of these students.
About 30 per cent of Aboriginal students currently graduate from high school while this number is 75 per cent for non-Aboriginal students.
Education Minister Russ Marchuk says this has to change.
“The success of First Nations and Métis students in our province is a priority. We want them to be able to have access to the success the province is having as well. So it’s a priority.”
In another initiative, the province will be expanding pre-kindergarten classes with the goal of eventually making these classes available to every four-year-old child in the province.
Marchuk says roughly one third of children aged three to four currently attend pre-kindergarten and the government wants to expand this.
The education minister says the province would like to have pre-kindergarten classes available to all four-year-old children by 2014 but this date is not set in stone.
NDP Opposition Education Critic Trent Wotherspoon says he disappointed by the lack of a firm timeline.