The Government of Saskatchewan announced that it’s centralizing online learning for Saskatchewan students and it’ll come into effect for the 2023-24 school year.
This centralized model will provide any class from kindergarten to grade 12 for any Saskatchewan student who chooses to study online and it’s all free of charge.
This option will allow students, teachers, and their families with a consistent user experience as well as flexible learning opportunities.
This initiative comes from the 2021 Throne speech commitment to creating a new learning policy to ensure students receive the best education if they study online.
“Our government firmly believes that the best place for students is in a classroom, however in the event where students are in need of online learning we want to ensure that all students will have access to high quality education regardless of where they are living,” says Education Minister Dustin Duncan.
“We are pleased to enhance their experience through consistency, accessibility, and choice, and to best meet whatever their personal learning needs may be.”
When the model comes into effect, students will have access to a wide range of online classes regardless of what school division they live in.
Students will have the option to take only in-person classes, only online classes, or a hybrid of both.
However, a student will only be a part of one school division.
“We want them attached to that school division. We want them attached to hopefully a local school so that they can still take part in extracurricular activities, they can take part in graduation with the kids that they grew up with. We want to be able to provide that option for that to exist while also expanding the number of classes that they have access to,” says Duncan.
Catholic school divisions as well as Conseil des écoles fransaskoises (CEF) are not a part of this model yet due to the protection policies they have to offer learning avenues how they see fit but Duncan says that those schools are a part of the conversation.
“We certainly do want to have a conversation with them to see if there are further efficiencies that can be found with bringing them into this centralized model and those will be the conversations that the ministry will have with them over the coming months,” he says.
