Lifelong
Learning

The Problem

Education is underfunded, overburdened, under-appreciated, and built for the last century.

The Promise

The NCP will create the best environment for education in the country by funding our education system like never before and ensuring that it grows to meet the needs of residents no matter their stage of life.

The Plan

The NCP will introduce several bills in a Lifelong Learning Package.

We will treat our educators with the respect and reverence that they deserve. In consultation and good-faith negotiations with the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation, support staff unions, school divisions, and other relevant bargaining agents, the Government of Saskatchewan will pursue the following compensation and recruitment package for public education workers across the system:

• A $5,000 bonus to all staff, regardless of position, in provincially funded public schools.
• An additional $10,000 bonus (thus $15,000 total) for new, returning, rural, northern, and other hard-to-fill placements, which include:
• French immersion
• Special education
• School counsellors / psychologists / SLPs
• Industrial arts / trades
• Hard-to-fill substitute pools
• A 10% across-the-board increase to the general compensation rate
• Up to 25% targeted recruitment and retention premiums for rural, northern, and other hard-to-fill placements designated by regulation

An Educator Recruitment Initiative will provide relocation support, and student loan forgiveness for educators or student educators who commit to teaching wherever placed in Saskatchewan. Extra grants and tax incentives will be given to any educator who commits to teaching in underserved communities for a minimum of three years.

Universal, publicly-funded pre-kindergarten will be available to all four-year-olds, with priority expansion to communities currently lacking early childhood education options.

K-12

The goal will be to place Saskatchewan in the top three highest-funded public school systems in Canada on a comparable per-student operating basis within 10 years. To get there, the Province will first restore funding to keep pace with inflation, enrolment growth, and classroom complexity, then move Saskatchewan into the top three provinces within five years, and to first place by the end of the 10-year transition.

To support student health and education, free breakfast and lunches will be provided by the schools. Grants will be given to ensure every school can provide these free healthy meals to all students, regardless of family income, within that same 10-year period.

Additional student transportation funding will also be provided to ensure rural and remote students have reliable access to schools regardless of distance.

For clarity, transportation, capital construction, and other extraordinary costs will be funded through separate envelopes and will not be used to mask or substitute for classroom operating funding.

First Nations-operated schools will be eligible, where requested by the governing First Nation and through negotiated agreement, for provincial per-student operating top-ups to achieve parity with comparable provincial schools. These top-ups are intended to supplement, not replace, federal education funding, and will not limit First Nations control over governance, language, curriculum, staffing, or school operations.

No educator will be left behind. Education Assistants and support staff will receive dedicated statutory funding based on school size and staffing ratios established through binding agreement with the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF). There will also be new training and rules around student behaviours as to protect our educators and students with mandatory external safety audits for violent incidents. Work refusals for unsafe classrooms are explicitly protected under the new Fair Work Authority.

Students with complex learning, behavioural, or physical needs will receive individualized support plans developed with families, educators, and specialists. Funding will follow the student, ensuring supports are available regardless of which school they attend.

A new statutory school supplies grant will be given to schools to ensure each classroom has the supplies they need for class work and classroom decoration. No longer will teachers be expected to pay out of pocket.

New minimum prep times will be introduced, with guaranteed hours based on class sizes and grade.

Class sizes will be capped and reduced so that educators can give adequate attention and support to all their students. The specific class sizes and staffing ratios will be established through binding agreement with the STF.

Extracurricular Activities, especially those outside of school hours, will receive new and increased funding that includes educator pay for presiding over such activities. Educators must be fairly compensated for any extracurricular work.

Arts programs will receive new and additional funding to ensure students have access to arts education as a necessary part of the human experience and the expression of Saskatchewan.

Educators will be offered new bursaries to expand their knowledge and teaching abilities in the following:

• Indigenous history, culture, and languages.
• Special education and supporting students with complex needs.
• New curriculum subjects.
• Trauma informed teaching practices.
• Anti-racism and anti-oppression education.
• French.
• English as a Second Language.
• and more.

Police in residence will be replaced with Indigenous Elders in residence, should any Elders consent.

Attendance increase schemes or avoidance deterrence will be banned. Children will not be punished for not being able to attend school. Instead new supports and training will be provided to help students, educators, and parents determine the cause of attendance failures. The focus is on fixing the problem, not the child.

Public funding for private and independent schools will be phased out over five years, declining by 20% annually. Students enrolled in private schools at the time this Act comes into force may complete their current level of schooling (elementary or secondary) with proportional funding support.

Catholic schools, as constitutionally protected separate schools, will continue to receive public funding. However, they must teach the provincial curriculum, follow provincial labor standards, and may not discriminate against students or staff on any Human Rights Code protected ground.

Homeschooling will have new restrictions and rules:

• Educators must register and get a free license from the province in order to homeschool.
• Educators must submit background checks to the province.
• Educators must submit annual learning and curricula plans to the Ministry, following the provincial curriculum.
• Students and educators must meet with Ministry of Education representatives for a biannual portfolio review.
• Students must be enrolled, for free, in the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre.
  • Grants will be provided for devices as well as internet and electricity bills.
• Students must complete an annual standardized test for their grade level to ensure accountability and quality of education.
• Enforcement will prioritize support over punishment and escalate slowly. The goal is to support quality learning and the child, not punish the parents.

New Curriculum

The Government will work in partnership with Indigenous nations, governing bodies, and organizations, as well as the universities and trades schools in Saskatchewan, to design an updated and modern provincial education curriculum for K-12.

The curriculum will be outcomes-based, without new or additional standardized testing. The goal is not to create more work for the teachers, but to make their work more meaningful.

Suggested new subjects, to be taught alongside existing subjects as to not overwhelm teachers, include:

• Civic and Labour History.
• Media and Digital Literacy.
• Critical Thinking outside of just English Class.
• Financial Literacy.
• Consent and Healthy Relationships.
• Climate and Land-based Learning.
• Reconciliation and Treaties.
• Indigenous Languages.

Post Secondary

Statutory, multi-year funding agreements will be made to ensure post-secondary institutions have reliable and predictable funding. This will provide a reliable floor to stand on.

Additional operating grants will be set to clear benchmarks around inflation, enrolment growth, population, and agreed upon program expansions.

Tuition will be capped so that it can only increase annually by Saskatchewan's CPI inflation plus a small margin determined in partnership with post-secondary sector partners.

Tuition Vouchers, which cover tuition, fees, books, etc, must be redeemable by the post-secondary institution in order to receive any other funding from the province. Redemption of vouchers will be dependent on seat availability in the selected program each year. If a program is at capacity, voucher holders may defer redemption to the following intake, apply to a related program, or request placement on a priority waitlist. Vouchers do not expire due to program capacity constraints.

• See Policy 11 - The Saskatchewan Century Corps for more.

Crowns and Ministries will partner with post-secondary institutions for training, as well as long-term research on the various new initiatives taken on by the Government of Saskatchewan.

A Capacity Expansion Fund will be created. The funding will be tied to that year's demand from SCC Tuition Vouchers and Energy Veterans retraining, and overall labour market metrics. For example, with every 100 Tuition Vouchers redeemed in a program area, the Capacity Expansion Fund will provide funding for one additional faculty position and proportional facility expansion in that area up to the institution's physical capacity.

The Capacity Expansion Fund will fund:

• New faculty lines in high-demand programs.
• More clinical instructors in nursing and allied health programs.
• More lab and shop space for trades and applied programs.
• Instructional design staff for SaskDLC and other hybrid programs.
• New research funding.

The post-secondary institutions in Saskatchewan will also be eligible for grants to do public research in Saskatchewan's interest. The Saskatchewan Advanced Research Projects Agency (SARPA) will be established to handle these research initiatives. Exact details will be made in partnership with the post-secondary institutions.

The Saskatchewan Library Authority (SLA):

A new, federated, opt-in group for all libraries in Saskatchewan will be established and known as the Saskatchewan Library Authority. For SLA participating libraries, there will be a single, unified Library Card under a unified catalogue province wide.

Participating libraries must agree to a code of Intellectual Freedom in their collections, meaning no removals or omissions based on viewpoint. The selection criteria must be transparent. Shelving, both physical and digital, must be age appropriate. Materials and works where AI-generated content is the primary creative output are not eligible to be part of the catalogue.

Anyone challenging a book's inclusion in the SLA must go through a formal review by an independent panel of librarians. The default bias must be that no books should be banned, with exceptions only for material that blatantly violates the criminal code.

Physical book delivery will be managed in partnership with the new Saskatchewan Transport Corporation (STC).

• See Policy 06 - 21st Century Connected Communities for more.

Participating central libraries will receive grants to expand their buildings and services to include maker spaces and equipment lending. They will also receive grants to purchase connected devices for long term rental periods, such as an education semester, with priority given to SaskDLC students. Participating libraries will be prohibited from charging any late fees.

A Saskatchewan Open Library program will be introduced that collects out-of-print and public domain materials. Such materials will be stored and operated by the SLA and have no limits on digital lending.

The Government of Saskatchewan will seek Most Favoured Nation terms in publisher negotiations and will prioritize publishers who offer equitable and accessible licensing across Canadian jurisdictions.

Data generated by the SLA and participating libraries cannot be given or sold to any outside entity of the Government of Saskatchewan. Library users' data will not be used in any training of any form of artificial intelligence.

The Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre

The Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (SaskDLC) will receive a new mandate and new funding to expand its services.

Educators from the STF will be recruited and paid their union wages to help create free, self-paced, Adult Basic Education programs, Adult Literacy programs, High School Upgrading programs, and a self-paced K-12 program. All of which must follow the provincial curriculum and thus are eligible for official transcripts. Delivery will be both synchronous and asynchronous for learners to choose their preference, with educators staffed for synchronous delivery of their lessons.

Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition programs for newcomers and residents will be offered for low- to no-cost depending on ability to pay.

Tutoring services will be offered to all residents using Education Program students from the universities. These positions would be paid union rates.

The SaskDLC will have a goal of being as accessible as possible with various language options, disability-first design, and human-made subtitles.

Data generated by students, educators, and the SaskDLC is prohibited from being sold, distributed, or used outside the Government of Saskatchewan. Student learning data will be prohibited from being used to train any form of artificial intelligence models.

Arts Funding:

The Arts are a fundamental part of human life and the province will commit to funding them.

Arts funding will be restored to at least $15 per capita annually, with annual increases indexed to CPI.

An arms length public arts council will be created to distribute and manage the funds. Creation grants and operating grants will be delivered to various artists, festivals, and tourism divisions doing public works.

A Film and Television Production Tax Credit of 30% of eligible Saskatchewan labor costs will be established, stackable with federal incentives.

A minimum of 20% of Arts funding must be spent outside of Regina and Saskatoon, with extra grants given to small towns.

Participating SLA libraries will have regular periodic exhibit spaces for local artists.

Materials and works where AI-generated content is the primary creative output are not eligible for funding.

The Funding

Education funding shall come out of the General Revenue Fund.

What It Means For You

It means a quality education no matter your age or ability.

It means our educators get the pay and recognition they deserve.

It means the dignity in always learning.

FAQ

• How much will per-student funding increase?
• The goal is to place Saskatchewan in the top three highest-funded public school systems in Canada on a comparable per-student operating basis within 10 years. The province will first restore funding to keep pace with inflation, enrolment growth, and classroom complexity, then move Saskatchewan into the top three provinces within five years, and to first place by the end of the 10-year transition. Transportation, capital construction, and other extraordinary costs will be funded separately and will not be used to mask classroom underfunding.


• Will teachers and school staff get a raise?
• Yes. The NCP will offer a $5,000 bonus to all staff, regardless of position, with an additional $10,000 for new, returning, rural, northern, and other hard-to-fill placements. The government will also pursue a 10% across-the-board increase to general compensation, along with targeted recruitment and retention premiums of up to 25% for rural, northern, and other hard-to-fill positions.


• Will my kids get free school meals?
• Yes. Free breakfast and lunches will be provided at schools, with additional grants to ensure every school can provide free healthy meals.


• What happens to private school funding?
• Public funding for private and independent schools will be phased out over five years, declining by 20% annually. Catholic schools, as constitutionally protected separate schools, will continue to receive public funding.


• What are the new homeschooling rules?
• Homeschool educators must register for a free license, submit background checks, follow the provincial curriculum, and students must complete annual standardized tests. Students must be enrolled in the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre. Enforcement prioritizes support over punishment.


• What is the Saskatchewan Library Authority?
• A new, federated, opt-in group for all libraries in Saskatchewan offering a single unified Library Card, unified catalogue, maker spaces, and equipment lending. No late fees at participating libraries.


• Will post-secondary tuition be capped?
• Yes. Tuition can only increase annually by CPI plus a small margin determined in partnership with post-secondary partners. SCC Tuition Vouchers must be accepted by institutions that receive provincial funding.