Drop-out rates in Alberta continue to be among the highest in the country, despite the oil-rich province having one of the most successful education systems in the world.
Nearly a quarter (78.6 percent) of Alberta high school students do not graduate within 5 years of starting grade 10, say statistics from Alberta Education.
The most current figures from Statistics Canada place Alberta behind only Manitoba in drop out rates.
In 2005 Manitoba had a drop out rate of 13 percent, compared to Alberta's 12 percent. The national average was 10.1 percent. British Columbia had the lowest drop-out rate of 7.5 percent. (Due to differences in data collection methods, national drop-out rates cannot be directly compared to provincially reported high-school completion rates.) National figures indicate that nearly twice as many boys drop out as girls, a pattern that holds true in Alberta.
Kathy Telfer, a spokesperson for Alberta Education, said aboriginal students are also more likely to drop out. According to the 2006 census, 5.8 percent of Alberta's population was Aboriginal, compared to 15.5 percent for Manitoba.
But while some reports blame Alberta's red hot economy and the lure of high-paying oil and gas jobs for causing children to leave school, Telfer said that is not necessarily the case.
"Our kids have told us it's not the economy," she said, adding that most children say their decision to leave school is affected by their school experience in earlier grades.
"It's not something they decided to do in grade 10, 11 or 12. Students were lured away, but that wasn't a driving force.
Many dropouts have a record of absenteeism that goes back to elementary school, Telfer said.
"One of the very interesting things was many of these kids come from broken homes or disadvantaged homes or homes with addiction."
To address the problem of low high school completion rates, Telfer said the province is looking at curriculum changes and expanding access to education materials through online resources.
One of the biggest challenges facing teachers now is the exploding popularity of new technologies that change the way students get information.
"It's so much different how information comes to people now. It's quicker, it's in your face, so how does the classroom keep up with that?"
The answer, said Telfer, is an updated curriculum that takes advantage of those technologies and keeps teachers in time with technological changes.
Telfer said the province is also looking at expanding the aboriginal content in the curriculum to better involve aboriginal students. That includes adding several aboriginal languages that will be offered from grade four.
But while drop-out rates remain high in Alberta, the students who are in school are doing well. Late last year Alberta ranked near the top of the world in the Progress in
International Reading Study, an international study that tested students in reading. Also in 2007, Canadian students ranked third in the world in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's science, math and reading study.
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