The six-year completion rates for Indigenous students are on the rise in the Nanaimo Ladysmith School District.
District principal of Aboriginal education, Ted Cadwallader said the district has been focusing on each student and things like early literacy which helps students move along in the system.
“Identifying every single student in our district whether they are at a reading level, or at their grade level, whether they are going to be okay next year. Looking at what, exactly, a student needs to graduate and making sure the students who are in Grade eight through to Grade twelve know what those graduation requirements are.”
The graduation rate for Aboriginal students in the district for 2017/18 is 62 per cent.
That’s up from 52 per cent the year before and 56 per cent the year before that.
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In the Cowichan Valley School District the graduation rate for all students has increased from the previous year including for Aboriginal students.
In 2016/17 the graduation rate for Aboriginal students was 49 per cent.
In 2017-18 it went up to 53 per cent.
Board Chair, Candace Spilsbury said the new curriculum has indigenous education embedded into every grade and the Aboriginal Education Department is working hard to support staff with history, culture and indigenous language knowledge.
She said the District will continue to focus on improving the Aboriginal student graduation rate and points out that when she first became a trustee, in 2008, the rate was 35 per cent.
For all students, the graduation rate went up one percentage mark over the last two years from 81 per cent to 82.
