Technology might not save schools from the tax revolt that is spreading across rural Saskatchewan, but it’s a place to start, says Ponteix, Sask., farmer Gary Shaddock.
In an interview, the president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association said computers aren’t cheaper than busing students, because the machines are expensive and become outdated quickly.
But he thinks farmers will appreciate that the education dollar is spent smarter by rearranging classes or times, using computer or satellite tools for distance learning and allowing various schools in a division to be the centre for specialized courses.
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Shaddock said rural enrolments are shrinking and small schools can no longer cling to traditional methods. While he is “cautiously optimistic” the provincial government might start putting more money back into school budgets, trustees are also working on other solutions.
“There is a shortage of teachers in some areas,” Shaddock said in a news release outlining the SSTA research paper Program Delivery in Saskatchewan.
“Developments in technology challenge the tradition that all students should be educated in a specific place, for a certain number of hours and a certain number of days during the week and year.”
The association’s paper, released at a seminar last week, outlines how schools can use new technology.
Shaddock said in his school division in the province’s southwest, Val Marie buses 21 of its high school students one day a week into Swift Current, 130 kilometres away, so they can take applied science courses such as woodworking, mechanics, home economics and cosmetology.
Other school divisions have similar arrangements to offer French.
Flexibility is the key, he said, because there is no single way to provide good solutions to maintain teachers, yet also provide students equal opportunities to take a wide range of courses.
Alberta and British Columbia’s education systems are ahead of the other western provinces in their use of technology, said Shaddock.
One reason to rush ahead in Saskatchewan, he added, is that other jurisdictions could offer their courses on-line and start to splinter provincial systems.
While Saskatchewan students taking an Alberta course would not get credit from the education department, employers might appreciate that students took a particular course and hire them regardless of whether they have a high school diploma.
The research paper can be accessed through the website www.ssta.sk.ca.
