Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation spoke at the Saskatchewan NDP convention Friday. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Funding and Graduation Rates

Maze talks education challenges at NDP convention

Nov 1, 2019 | 5:25 PM

The head of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) made a stop in Prince Albert to talk about education.

Patrick Maze, the STF’s president spoke to the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party convention Friday at Plaza 88. During his talk Maze spoke about the importance of public education and how it needs to be looked at as a public investment. He also touched on how many groups involved in education have been at work gathering surveys looking for ways to improve the system.

Talking to media after his speech, Maze said the biggest issue that needs to be addressed is properly funding the system to ensure teachers have all the supports they need in the classroom.

“They’re trying to run education on austerity budgets and you can’t do that,” he said.

Besides budgets, Maze said the composition of classes needs to be looked at, specifically what kinds of students are in the class and how many may require extra attention. To help deal with this, Maze said the STF has suggested the creation of a special fund which could be accessed to help classrooms where their may be a large number of students with more needs.

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The STF president also spoke about concerns regarding the numbers of Indigenous students graduating. Before travelling to P.A. Maze stopped in Saskatoon where he and Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Vice-Chief David Pratt called for the government to do more to raise graduation rates.

“You look at the overall numbers and still here in 2019 after years of targeted efforts at it, we are still having half of the First Nation students graduate than non-Indigenous students and that’s just unacceptable,” he said.

According to a media release from the STF, the three year graduation rate for Indigenous students in Saskatchewan is sitting at 43 per cent, while the overall rate is sitting at 77 per cent.

Maze said he was happy to speak at the NDP convention, explaining it was part of a multi-faceted approach to bring education issues to light.

“If the Sask Party wanted me to come speak at their convention, I would give the same message,” he said.

There was a healthy crowd of delegates on hand to hear Maze speak Friday (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@mjhskcdn