The month of June is usually a happy time for many students, as it marks the end of a school year. But for graduating students, this milestone is momentous.
A Grade 12 student at Aden Bowman Collegiate, Vivek Nrusimhadevara, said he would feel like something is missing if graduations are discontinued.
“If you think about our class, when we came in, it was (during) COVID. Grade 11 was kind of our only normal year. Now in Grade 12, there’s been job action and we’re dealing with sanctions at the time for graduation,” he said.
“I do feel that sort of reflecting on my high school experience, it would be disappointing to miss that.”
On June 5, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) announced that teachers in the province will begin work-to-rule job action starting on Monday after rejecting binding arbitration with the province.
This job action puts field trips and graduations in jeopardy for students across Saskatchewan. STF president Samantha Becotte said they have heard from the Ministry that plans are in place to ensure graduation ceremonies continue.
“We have told our members that, within these sanctions, teachers won’t be supporting, the planning or facilitation of graduation events,” said Becotte. “There’s a way to avoid all of this, and that’s to get back to the table and come to an agreement where we’ll start to see real improvements to classrooms coming up in September.”
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Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said it’s frustrating knowing that there’s sanctions starting again on Monday. Discussions will occur soon with the province and school divisions that are unable to make graduation events happen this year due to sanctions imposed.
“We’ve been engaging with school divisions, all 27 of them, over the last several months, in terms of ensuring that they’re ready to go through with graduation events,” he said.
“There’s a small handful of school divisions that have expressed concern about their ability to make those events happen … we’re going to be having that discussion again with divisions today or tomorrow on how we can support them in terms of the graduation events.”
Minister Cockrill said 24 out of the 27 school divisions expressed that they would have no issue carrying out the graduation ceremony.
Becotte said STF wants to make sure they have the best plans in place now so that they can start being implemented in September.
“That means getting back to the bargaining table, and in good faith, any sanctions that are announced now can be withdrawn,” she said.
“I’d be happy to be able to withdraw them before Monday if government came back with a willingness to negotiate some of those real solutions, before that time. But that’s up to them.”
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