Kasabonika students dropping out

Kasabonika’s Chief Simeon McKay Education Centre has holes in the gymnasium floor big enough for the principal to stick her arm into.
“You can actually just see gravel,” said Helena Trapper, principal of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 school. “The holes can’t be repaired — it has to be a whole new floor.”
Due to the condition of the floor and a limited amount of sports equipment, Trapper said students usually get exercise by playing hockey in the community arena.
“It’s a safety issue,” Trapper said, noting the gymnasium also has exposed wiring by the electrical plug-ins. “I always get my staff to ensure no kids are playing with these.”
In addition to being a sports facility, the gymnasium functions as a community hall and a provincial courtroom.
“This is a multipurpose facility,” Trapper said. “This is where the community feasts — everything happens in here.”
Trapper said the school also faces shortages in classroom space and needs more updated education resources.
“In September we had 40 students in one class and we didn’t have enough tables and chairs — they had to sit on the counter,” Trapper said. “The students see that and feel that, so now they’ve ended up dropping out of school because they see the school cannot support a proper education.”
Trapper said the school had 290 students at the beginning of the school year, but due to the dropout rate among high school students, the number of students has since dropped to 214 as of Jan. 10.
“A lot of the materials we have here are outdated or not really relevant to our First Nations issues,” Trapper said. “So most of the information we get is off the Internet, but how good is that?”