Raising the Compulsory Age of Attendance in Manitoba Schools: Uneven Results

Compulsory school attendance policies establish a school entry age and a school leaving age for students. In 1916, the Province of Manitoba introduced a compulsory attendance law that mandated students attend school from the age of 7 to the age of 14. Fifty years later, further amendments were made to the school leaving age, but the school entry age did not change. On December 6, 2010, the Province of Manitoba presented Bill 13: The Preparing Students for Success Act in the provincial legislature increasing the compulsory school attendance age in Manitoba from 16 to 18. The purpose of this statute was to ensure that students stay in school and complete their high school education in response to continually low high school graduation rates in the province. Manitoba became only the 3rd province in Canada to enact a compulsory school leaving age of 18. The impact of this legislation on educators and administrators was included in the findings of a dissertation that analysed the policy that introduced this increase in the school leaving age as well as its historical precedents. The primary question of this paper addresses is, “How did educators and administrators interpret and implement the increase to the compulsory school leaving age to 18 years in three Manitoba schools as a result of The Preparing Students for Success Act 2011? This paper is organized in three parts. Part I reviews the statutory history and rationale in Canada for a compulsory school attendance age limit. Part II looks at the Manitoba rationale for increasing the school attendance age through The Preparing Students for Success Act 2011 as well as its success at meeting this policy’s objective. Part III provides a reflection on lessons learned from the Manitoba experience.