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NUNAVUT
Fewer high school graduates, fewer Grade 10 students but more in kindergarten are some of the highlights from newly-released enrolment and graduation numbers.

Some 8,900 students are enrolled in various schools across the territory for this school year, an increase of 47 students from the 2010-11 school year, data released from the Department of Education shows.

Examining the data per grade, 80 more kindergarten students are enrolled this school year compared to the previous one, representing the sharpest increase of all grades, the data shows.

It also indicates the sharpest decrease is with Grade 10, as 92 fewer students are enrolled in the 2011-12 school year, compared with the 2010-11 school year. So this school year, kindergarten has 760 students, Grade 10 has 911 and Grade 9 remains unchanged from last school year with 605 students.

"Five years prior, there were 100 additional births in the territory, so that was what increased the enrolment for kindergarten," said Peter Geikie, assistant deputy minister of Education.

This school year's Grade 11 enrolment increased by 46 students to 755 and since there weren't as many students coming into Grade 10, he added this might explain why the enrolment number decreased for that grade.

"Our numbers in Grade 10 were down but we are seeing some increases in (grades) 11-12, which is a positive," said Geikie.

He said students dropping out likely aren't a factor in the Grade 10 enrolment decline.

"I don't think it has a major effect on enrolments, the drop-out rates, but it's one of those you'd have to watch and probably have to go to do some surveys amongst those few to find out why they dropped out."

For the first time since 2004, fewer students graduated high school in 2011 than the previous year, data provided by the Department of Education shows. Last school year, 228 Grade 12 students finished high school, representing 39 per cent of the students enrolled in that grade. In 2010, 241 out of the 519 Grade 12 students enrolled, or 46 per cent of them, finished high school.

Geikie said it's hard to say what caused the drop.

"It's been pretty strong for Nunavut for the past couple of years and it did take a dip," he said. "We have to wait for a few more years to see if it continues. It doesn't mean we still don't have lots to do but I'm still seeing it as a positive trend that's happening in our schools. We're watching the trend.

"If it continues to take dips and slides, then I would be concerned."

He said historically, the graduation rate in Nunavut has been below 50 per cent. Geikie said the data does not mean the non-graduating students have dropped out of school, remarking some are missing only one or two courses while others take longer to finish high school.

One of the priorities for Geikie is to get children in school as often as possible. A student who attends school less than 40 per cent of the time is considered as a non-attendee, he explained, and for Nunavut, 6.7 per cent of students fell into that category from this past September to present.

"It's the attendance that is our biggest concern," he said. "Our average attendance is less than 72 per cent across our schools. We're working with our communities and our DEAs, our schools to encourage students to attend on a more regular basis."

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