Student stress rising in Sask., says Regina Catholic School Division

Increasing stress and anxiety is among the biggest challengesto student graduation rates in Saskatchewan, according to the Regina Catholic School Division's superintendent of education.

Kelley Ehman said recent surveys appeared to show student stress was a bigger problem in Saskatchewan.

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"Compared to Canadian norms, it seems that we're on a bit of an up-trend that way," she said.

"The reason why, we're not sure."

Recent graduation rates

The RCSD recently released its latest graduation rates, including numbers for the 2015-2016 school year.

About 87 per cent of students graduated on time within three years of starting Grade 10, which the division said was higher than the provincial rate of about 76per cent.

Indigenous graduation rates were lower at about 62 per cent, but higher than the provincial rate of 42 per cent, according to the division.

Although the Indigenous rates dropped by about 5 per cent from the previous school year, Ehman said the school was pleased with this year's graduation rates overall.

Transience, language among challenges

Ehman attributed the drop in Indigenous graduation rates to the fact that the division's data still included some students who had left the school division afterGrade 10.

She said transience was one of the biggest challenges for Indigenous students, as well as the wider student population.

Ehman also noted the increasing number of students attending the school who spoke English as a second language.

Increasing stress and anxiety was another major factor, she said, citing data collected by the Saskatchewan Alliance for Youth & Community Well-being and the Tell Them From Me student survey.

"Those are certainly common conversations that we talk about in terms of trends that we're seeing that sometimes disrupt student learning," she said.

"So if a student is missing time from school, out of class, because of anxiety or depression and mental health concerns, obviously that is going to impact graduation rates."

Supporting students during 'transformational change'

Ehman said providing online learning was one of the ways the division was supporting students who were missing school for mental health reasons.

However, she said it was difficult to plan other future measures when the provincial government was talking about"transformational change" and budget constraints.

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Earlier this month, the province ordered school boards to cap compensation rates to help reduce its $1-billion deficit.

Ehman said there was a feeling of uncertainty within the school division as it waited for more advice from the province.

"I'm no more enlightened on what that will mean than the vast majority of the public is," said Ehman.

"Certainly we know that financially, in terms of our operating budgets, we're going to have to be very, very targeted with our spending, which we always are."