The first section of the Handbook deals with leadership through direction: who are trustees and the Education system, why boards exist, and your first two responsibilities: the governance system and setting the strategic direction of the School Board.
The structure of the Saskatchewan Education system is shown below. As a shared responsibility of both the Federal and Provincial government, the sector is led in the province by the Ministry of Education. In fulfilling its responsibility for the education of young people, the Province has delegated local monitoring and guidance to School Boards.
School divisions are the foundation of Saskatchewan’s publicly-funded education system – There are 27 school divisions in the province. School divisions fall into three categories: public, separate and francophone.
- Public school divisions – Unless a taxpayer has designated otherwise, his or her taxes are directed to the public school board.
- Separate school divisions – Members of the minority faith who have established a separate school division must pay their taxes to the separate school board. In most areas of Saskatchewan, the Catholic faith is the minority faith. In 2009, there was one Protestant separate school division in Saskatchewan.
- Francophone school division – Saskatchewan has one francophone school division for the whole province. It governs Fransaskois schools in Saskatchewan. Only students who have a minority language parent (a parent whose first language is French) are eligible to attend Fransaskois schools.
Saskatchewan School Divisions
Saskatchewan’s education system is illustrated in the graphic below.
