The provincial government announced $4.2 million in new money this week to help school boards get more students into a cap and gown come graduation day.
Every school board in the province will receive $55,000 plus an additional $5 per student enrolled in high school that they can use any way they want to increase the number of graduates.
Province-wide, 79.5 per cent of students completed high school within five years of entering Grade 10.
Carolyn Stuparyk of Alberta Education said the province is continuously aiming to improve and hopes current events underscore the importance of a diploma.
“The promise of a paycheque has certainly lured some students away from school, but I think you can look at today and the downturn in the economy and say that is a reason why students need to complete their high school education.”
She said Alberta Education wants the board to figure out the best way to improve their graduation rates as long as they do it.
“It is entirely up to them as to what they want to do with the money as long as it is targeted to addressing high school completion.”
Both St. Albert school boards have completion rates significantly higher than the provincial average. The Catholic board sees 88.5 per cent of students complete within five years while the Protestant board has an 86.9 per cent completion rate.
Dave Caron, chair of the Catholic board, said new money is always welcome.
“Any additional funding to help students learn is a good news story and we are looking forward to some of the strategies that the government puts forward,” he said.
Caron said the board already works hard on the issue and has a contracted retired principal calling every dropout to find out why they left.
“Oftentimes all that is needed is one or two courses that can be accessed relatively easy.”
Morag Pansegrau, vice chair of the Protestant board, said there are plenty of ways to spend the new dollars.
“I am sure they will have no difficulty finding appropriate ways of spending it.”
She said they are proud of their existing rate, but there is always more ground to cover. “One student who doesn’t complete who could complete is still one student too many.”
Pansegrau said the only problem with the funding, is it has only been promised for one year.
“One-time is better than no-time funding, but we would hope that if it is an ongoing initiative there would be ongoing funding.”
The province’s current goal is a completion rate of 82 per cent, but Stuparyk said they won’t stop there.
“We would like to see it go beyond 90 per cent, ideally we would like 100 per cent, but I think we are trying to be realistic.”
