Sunchild cyberschool opens

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First Nations students in grades 10 to 12 who are looking for alternatives to a regular classroom this fall should know that the Sunchild Cyber School is going to be delivering accredited on-line high school courses through the internet.

Martin Sacher, in his third year as principle of the Sunchild First Nations School, is enthusiastic about his role as progam co-ordinator of the new initiative.

Information about the school is posted on the World Wide Web at www.sccyber.net.

They are calling it an "affordable education alternative." Indian and Northern Affairs will pick up the tab for full-time registered students with access to a computer and modem, beginning this fall.

Sacher said they will start with four to six part-time contract teachers and they have already hired two full-time department heads.

Tony Agerskov, the department head for mathematics and science, has about 18 years' experience teaching in colleges, universities and First Nations schools.

Jim Moreau as head of the humanities department, will bring 21 years' experience to bear on the social and English curricula.

Sacher believes First Nations students are not doing as well as they could in most First Nations schools for three reasons: "traditional First Nations schools," he said, have difficulty hiring the most experienced and highly qualified teachers; they don't meet the same level of academic achievement as in public schools; and they have fewer academic program choices because budgets are tied to enrollment.

Sacher says his online school will benefit those students. Using technology, teachers in large city centres will be able to instruct students in remote areas.

He said adult upgrading and college entrance preparation courses also can be done at home and will benefit parents or others who need flexibility in their schedules.

"It's actually the first cyber school in Canada that's specifically for First Nations," said Sacher.

"The most different thing in our model is that we run interactive chats - like we run a classroom."

The difference, Sacher explained, is "in Alberta there's probably . . . 27 online schools, but most of them are nothing more than glorified distance education, or providing material online. Our model is based on having students attend a regular classroom, so they have to be there at a regular time; the teacher is there giving instruction on a daily basis." He added that some of the "better" schools, such as St. Gabriel's, "provide a tutorial, where kids can ask questions 24 hours a day, but that model doesn't work. Some of the First Nations have already tried that and the kids don't check in."

Sacher explained the way the cyber school teachers' skills will be optimized.

"You can have someone whose responsibility may be just to teach English 30. So they do the chats at that time of day and because it is online, they're basically at their home. All these teachers work out of their house."

The idea for the school was his own. Sacher has a background in the public school systems in Saskatoon and Regina, and most recently he was the principal of Sylvan Lakes High School. Now he wants to bring education dollars into First Nation-developed and run education systems.

Sacher said the reason First Nations students don't succeed in the public school system are "mostly cultural." That is, "Culturally, just a lot of things happen with a lot of the kids where their education is interrupted and the public system is not based or structured in such a way to accommodate that interruption."

The cyber school model, on the other hand, is based on flexibility. If a student has to leave for any reason, he can return and resume where he left off.

Sacher's aim is to acquire all Native teachers as soon as possible. The cyber school will start up with non-Aboriginal teachers. "A lot of that has to do with technology." In other words, a strong computer background. "Right now, because we're starting, we need people to have a very strong echnological base. But we advertised across Canada and we had no First Nations people apply.

"The main reason we want to run an Aboriginal program is all the schools that are on board with us, we want to run a consortium of First Nations schools, so that everybody will be part of the project. And then our hope is by the end of this year we can bring on staff from each of the schools involved to start building and enhancing the current curriculum."