B1

SANDRA DAVIS
Telegraph-Journal

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

SAINT JOHN - Each year, the number of students who have not completed high school is decreasing ever so slightly and that's good news for everyone.

1 of 2

Noel Chenier/Telegraph-Journal

Christina Fowler of the Saint John Learning Exchange believes completion of at least high school is important for students and their parents.

Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal

District 6 superintendent Zoë Watson is not surprised to see more students completing high school.

"This is not a surprise to us because, as a province, we have a very low drop-out rate," says District 6 school superintendent Zoë Watson.

"We have many programs and initiatives in place for struggling students. Districts have alternate learning centres such as our PALS (Partners Assisting Schools program) sites in Sussex and Hampton and we see facilities such as Portage (a residential treatment facility for adolescents with substance abuse problems) as well."

Watson was commenting on the "learning" segment of the Vital Signs report, an annual community checkup conducted by more than a dozen community foundations across Canada to measure each city's vitality, identify trends and assign grades in at least 10 areas critical to quality of life.

The latest survey shows that in the Saint John Census Metropolitan Area, 19.3 per cent of students age 15 and over are not in school and have not completed high school, down from 20.1 in 2006 and a full 15 percentage points from 1990.

The Saint John rate in 2007 was 7.6 percentage points below the rate for New Brunswick and 2.9 percentage points below the Canada-wide rate.

The local survey is a project of the Greater Saint John Community Foundation.

The first survey was done in Saint John in 2006 and the foundation plans to continue taking part for at least 10 years.

Christina Fowler, executive director of the Saint John Learning Exchange, believes that completing at least high school is important for students and their parents.

"We know we need a literate, educated population in order to move society forward," she said.

At the same time, the exchange is always looking at ways to help people be successful, even without high school.

"We've been doing some work on the nine essential skills from numeracy to team work for people who haven't finished high school and have a certain literacy level but need to work on other things. We're just trying to give people other options and other paths if they haven't completed high school."

Watson is also encouraged by the number of students completing post-secondary education; in 2007, 48.5 per cent students in the Saint John Census Metropolitan Area obtained a university degree or college diploma, up from 47.2 per cent in 2006 and 31.4 per cent in 1990.

"Districts focus on school-to-career transitions in an effort to prepare students to make decisions about their future," Watson said.

She said she is not surprised by the growth in Internet use and access. School Internet access, for example, is up from 11.4 per cent in 2005 to 16.2 per cent in 2007.

"We see many of our families with Internet and email access, more schools posting homework on websites and wiki spaces, and using websites to communicate information to parents. We see the huge increase in social networking among the students as well."