I have a plan!
Let's close 25% of the schools, keep all the staff there was before, and add another school board trustee.

That should help with the graduation rate in this region.

Duh!

Then we can shift all the savings to sponsor a two-week party in the guise of sporting that benefits large corporations, government shills, government members and just about no body else.

Better yet why not start grading the teachers and get rid of the bad ones, believe me and in spite of their union there are plenty of them in the system. It would be interesting to find out just how many of them initially started out to be a teacher and how many dropped back into teaching due to the fact they couldn't make the grade in their initially chosen field.

The average for North Central BC is approx 68% so this should give you an idea why there is not a sufficient number of graduating students who would go on to University.

That is why the University numbers are dropping and will continue to drop. I suspect that a very small percentage of those who actually graduate go on to University. This is a serious problem for the University, however they rarely talk about it in public.

Students coming here from other areas of BC and Canada are also down, which exacerbates the problem.

The solution to low graduation rates? Lower the bar. I have found the community has little value for education. This is the consequence.
Graduation rates have little to do with the quality of teaching and much more to do with the socio economic demographic of the community.

The real problem is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). FAS is an epidemic in the North. Until society confronts FAS in the Northern parts of Canada, there will be contant complaints about the lack of quality of the school system. It is so much easier to blame the institutions rather than deal with the real problem. Until you can stop Mom from drinking or doing drugs while she is carrying Junior, there will continue to be complaints about bad teaching and systemic problems. I, for one, find that kind of talk useless.

So you are saying that 32% of pre-graduated students are FAS?

FAS may be a contributing factor, but I highly doubt it has that statistical significance.

I would rather say that 1/3 of those students are learning challenged. That would include all the FAS, other mental or intellectual challenges, and physical infirmities. That is a long way away from saying that the leading cause of our deplorable graduation rates is strictly or simply FAS.

As in most things, it is the culmination of factors that has brought this situation. Yes, FAS is a part, but so to is bad teaching and systemic problems. To what extent, we will never know. The answer my friend, is to resolve the major (statistically significant) issues and work towards mitigating the minor (less statistically significant) issues.

In my mind it is the front lines, the teachers, that will be affecting things the most. That with the support of the entire education system which includes parents, corporations and politicos.

Until we as a society decide that education is important and that it is profitable, we will remain in this state.

Subjectively (as there aren't too many parents that will own up to spawning a FAS child) I would have to say 10% of kids that enter school in grade 8 are FAS or FAE (Effects). I was a secondary teacher who worked with such children. Only a handful were able to graduate as the parents were often in denial or not present.
Among the often obvious physical features of such children is the lack of impulse control these kids have (often misdiagnosed as ADHD). Interestingly, there is a normal IQ distribution of such kids other than the mean is skewed 2 standard deviations lower than average.
Anyhow, when you factor out the disproportionate number of FAS kids, teachers in the north are doing a pretty good job. So is the system. I say the simplest way to improve graduation rates is to stamp out FAS. It is a big project and, as the above author points out, far easier to blame bad teaching.
Further, as PG is not exactly the sun and fun capital of BC, substantial financial incentives should be made to encourage teachers to work in the north. At one time PG paid better than the provincial average. The present wages are not much different than more attractive southern districts.
The only teachers you can keep in PG are at max. on the pay scale. PG will likely have them for their entire careers as southern districts can't afford them.