Alberta considers hiking school dropout age

EDMONTON – Alberta students looking to drop out of high school at 16 could soon be legally required to stay in school an extra year.

Education Minister Dave Hancock is giving serious thought to bumping up the compulsory school age to 17 as part of a broader effort to improve Alberta’s high school completion rate. For most students, that would require them to stay in school into their Grade 12 year. It is one of the changes proposed for a new Education Act, expected to be introduced in the Legislature next spring.

"I think it’s a useful thing to do," Hancock said Tuesday. "If the focus of society is to have an educated population, I think it’s worth saying most people don’t finish at the level we want them to by age 16."

The current School Act does make exceptions for students who earn enough high school credits to graduate early and the new act would continue to do so, Hancock said.

Provincially-funded high school courses also could be extended to Albertans for an extra year under the new act, increasing the cut-off from age 20 to 21. Again, Hancock said, the idea is to make it easier for more people to earn a high school diploma.

Right now, students typically have to pay out of pocket to finish courses through a school district or college after they turn 20.

The changes are among several proposed in a draft document on Alberta Education’s website that outlines ideas the new Education Act might include. None are set in stone, Hancock said, adding he wants to hear what the public thinks of the proposals outlined in the eight-page document.

But on some issues, such as increasing the mandatory school attendance age from 16 to 17, there is already guidance from the legislature. In 2003, MLAs passed a private members’ bill introduced by Conservative MLA Barry McFarland (Little Bow) instructing the government to require school attendance until the age of 17. It never became law.

Hancock said now is the time to make such changes as the School Act undergoes its first major overhaul in two decades.

Despite recent improvements, the number of students graduating from high school continues to be a real concern in Alberta. The province’s high school completion rate within five years of starting Grade 10 sits stubbornly below 80 per cent and Statistics Canada regularly reports that Alberta has among the highest number of people in their 20s who were dropouts.

Educators such as Brenda Willis, an assistant superintendent with Edmonton Catholic Schools, said moving the compulsory age of attendance from 16 to 17 fits with the efforts of school districts and Alberta Education to improve those numbers.

"For a majority, we’re sending a clear message that high school completion and education is important in their lives," Willis said.

Amanda Clara stopped regularly attending class when she was 16. Instead of going to school in what should have been her Grade 12 year, she worked full-time as a cook at a local restaurant.

She stopped attending school for a number of reasons. "But the fact that I didn’t have to attend probably played a factor in it," Clara said. "It didn’t push me to have to do it. I think kids should have to stay in school until the end to finish it. You spend so much time in elementary and junior high, it’s like throwing it all away."

Now 18, Clara returned in September to Edmonton Catholic’s Fresh Start, an alternative program that offers a flexible schedule. She hopes to graduate by the end of this year. "I see I need school," Clara said.

As Edmonton Public’s district principal for outreach programs, Shirley Keith works with many students who have trouble in a regular school setting or return after dropping out. She questioned whether increasing the compulsory school age from 16 to 17 will make a difference without some kind of enforcement.

"We have some kids, if they’re not going to go to school, they’re not going to go," Keith said. "A number of them have been by the attendance board four, five, six times and it has no impact. If we’re going to be increasing the mandatory age by a year, then we have to have enforcement strategies that go with it."

Hancock said he does not plan to add more enforcement tools. "By the time people get to age 15 and 16, enforcement is not the biggest tool. It’s societal attitudes," he said. "People comply to a great extent because it’s the law."