TUKTOYAKTUK - He's no Ferris Bueller.

Seventeen-year-old Ryan Walker of Tuktoyaktuk has never taken a day off school, much less orchestrated an entire feature film-length plot to get out of it. In less than three weeks, Walker will graduate from Mangilaluk School with 13 years of perfect attendance.

Ryan Walker, who is set to graduate from Mangilaluk School at the end of the month with a perfect attendance record. "Everyday there's a possibility of me learning something new and exciting," he said. - Photo courtesy of Eph Warren

"Knock on wood," he says quickly.

He'd just rather be in math class, expanding his knowledge of the subject he's been partial to since Grade 1. Each weekday morning he tackles calculus first, then physics, and usually spends his free period doing homework.

"There's never been a morning that I don't want to go to school, but there are some school days that feel longer than others," he explains.

Next fall he'll begin an undergraduate degree in math from St. Francis Xavier University on the way to becoming either a teacher or a lawyer - he hasn't decided yet. But he knows he's got a long student career ahead of him and he can't imagine himself tiring of it.

"School, to me, is basically a stepping stone. It's something you have to get through in order for you to go further along the path of life, to open other doors for you," Walker says. "Some people, they come to socialize, but you know, I can see my friends after school if I want to. Really the biggest draw to school for me is the fact that everyday there's a possibility of me learning something new and exciting."

At lunchtime, Walker supervises younger kids who always ask if he's missed a day yet. Day after day, he delivers them the same answer he gives to students in the Grade 6 class he helps out with for a work experience credit. He says they seem impressed every time he says no. He's even turned down bribes of up to $100 to skip school.

"It gives them something to look up to, like 'hey, if he can do it, why can't I attend regularly?'" Walker says, adding that he's not trying to be a role model. "I guess I've just been fortunate enough not to have gotten that sick where I couldn't attend school."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that his mother is a school secretary.

"If I were to skip, obviously mom would say 'where's Ryan?'" he laughs.

His parents moved to the hamlet from Edmonton when he was three.

"At a young age they always reinforced with me that education is very important, so I guess that kind of made it easier for me, living in a home where education is a priority."

His principal, Fred Butler, says this is the first time a student in Tuktoyaktuk has had such a long-standing record of perfect attendance.

"Everybody's astounded, as a matter of fact, because we do have a problem with attendance here at the school," Butler says. "He's a remarkable young man. He's going to do extremely well for himself."