Indigenous grad rate lags behind in BSD

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This article was published 12/01/2022 (1532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Indigenous students continue to lag behind other Brandon School Division pupils in terms of graduation rates, according to a recent report from assistant superintendent Jon Zilkey.

During Monday’s BSD board of trustees meeting, Zilkey revealed that only 47 per cent of local Indigenous students who entered Grade 9 in 2017 successfully graduated from high school last year.

On the other hand, 82 per cent of BSD students overall from that same cohort graduated in 2021. Eighty-one per cent of English as an additional language students also received their diploma at that time.

Monday’s presentation emphasized that the discrepancy isn’t anything new, with the division registering a 47 per cent and 40 per cent on-time Indigenous graduation rate for 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Meanwhile, the overall BSD graduation rate remained steady at 81 per cent and 82 per cent during those two years.

Provincially, Manitoba Education reported the graduation rate for four-year, on-time Indigenous students was 50.9 per cent in 2020.

While Monday’s presentation covered BSD graduation rates from a variety of different angles, Zilkey said the gap between Indigenous pupils and the general BSD student population is the most concerning trend in his mind.

“BSD recognizes that we have lots of work to do to get that number higher,” he said Monday. “It’s got to be a major focus of the Brandon School Division.”

Board of trustees vice-chairperson Jason Gobeil was also disappointed with the finding, although it didn’t come as a surprise, he said.

Having spent many years working with groups like the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council, Gobeil has seen how systemic poverty and dysfunction at the family level have translated into poor performance at school.

This dynamic is made even worse by the stretches of remote learning that have characterized K-12 education during the COVID-19 pandemic, since Indigenous students are more likely not to have the required online resources at home to follow along, he noted.

“And when you don’t have the necessary tools to be as side-by-side with your peers in that virtual classroom, it’s really hard to stay focused,” Gobeil told the Sun Tuesday.

However, Gobeil remains confident that BSD’s Indigenous graduation rate can increase moving forward if the division reaffirms its commitment to working closely with families and identifying their children’s unique learning needs.

“As long as we can keep that door of communication open and keep our parents involved with the education plans of their children, I think that’s one of the highest successes that we’re going to be able to see,” he said.

Overall, 615 BSD students graduated from high school last year. Anyone interested in watching Zilkey’s entire breakdown of the school division’s 2021 graduation numbers can visit bsd.ca/page/8194/board-meeting-video-archives.

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