We talked with Prairie South School Division about the graduation rates released by the province. Now it's time to look at our other local division, Holy Trinity.

The provincial rate this past graduation year, 2016/2017, was at 76.5%. This is up from 75.6% the previous year.

Darell Zaba, Director of Education for Holy Trinity Catholic School Division (HTCSD), says even though it is just a 0.9% increase, this is the first time in twenty years that rates have increased.

HTCSD graduation rates for all 2016/2017 students was at 83%, moving up from 79% in 2015/2016. One of the main focuses for every system is continually moving these numbers up.

"Provincially, all 28 school divisions, many of our First Nations schools as well are working on what's called a provincial education sector strategic plan and every school division would have graduation rates as part of their strategic plan," Zaba explained.

While there still is room for improvement, HTCSD has a goal of 85% graduation rate by 2020, and they are already seeing the class of 69 students at Vanier Collegiate High School fast-tracked to their graduation.

The provincial rates also show that Indigenous graduation has moved up. In the 2015/2016 school year, Indigenous students graduation rates were at 41.8% and moved up to 43.2% last year. In 2012, that number was only 35%.

"There's some progress going on provincially here where they're trying to create schools that are more culturally responsive to the needs of First Nations children and they're saying the higher levels of student engagement [are] because of that initiative that's been going now for three years," Zaba said. "They're seeing good results actually exceeding some of our schools that have a low percentage of First Nations children so it's promising."

Compared to other provinces, Saskatchewan is in the middle for graduation rates. Quebec currently is the lowest with 64%, and Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia finished highest with 85%.