Individual Project Proposal

MGMT4270 - Intro to Data Science

Nova Scotia Public Schools Enrolment Trends

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is responsible for children’s education, including early years, and primary to grade 12 in English and French in public schools across the province (Province of Nova Scotia, 2025).

Nova Scotia has over 380 public schools serving over 133,500 students in 7 Regional Centres for Education (RCE) and 1 provincial francophone school board (Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP))(Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2024). Understanding enrollment patterns, program availability, and regional trends can help educators, policymakers, and other stakeholder make informed decisions to enhance student success.

The goal of this project is to analyze the distribution of students in Public Schools in Nova Scotia making notes of programs such as French Immersion, co-op education, and other career development programs. Using publicly available datasets, the project aims to analyze trends in school enrolment based on historical data from the 2006/2007 school year until the 2023/2024 school year.

Proposed Research Questions

1. What are the overall trends in public school enrollment in Nova Scotia from 2006/2007 to 2023/2024, and how do they vary across different RCEs and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP)?

2. How accessible are specialized programs (French immersion, O2, DO, co-op programs) across different regions, and are there significant disparities in availability?

3. What patterns can be observed in schools with multiple specialized program offerings compared to those with fewer options?

Proposed Datasets to use:

Nova Scotia Public School Enrolment by RCE/CSAP and School
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Nova-Scotia-Public-School-Enrolment-by-RCE-CSAP-an/cjnf-ywvt/about_data

Schools with French Programs
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Schools-with-French-Programs/kdgs-3rvd/about_data

Options and Opportunities (O2) Schools
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Options-and-Opportunities-O2-Schools/s56f-5bea/about_data

Public School Co-op Programs
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Public-School-Co-op-Programs/mzvg-qui6/about_data

Discovering Opportunities (DO) Schools
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Discovering-Opportunities-DO-Schools/jr2d-k7va/about_data

Schools Offering the Pre-primary Program
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Early-Childhood/Schools-Offering-the-Pre-primary-Program/2k3n-wed5/about_data

Nova Scotia Public School Contact Information
https://data.novascotia.ca/Education-Primary-to-Grade-12/Nova-Scotia-Public-School-Contact-Information/iyap-ttn5/about_data

References

Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2024). Enrolment by Region, School & Grade 2024-2025 [Dataset]. Excel Downloads: current & historical | Education and Early Childhood Development. https://stats-summary.ednet.ns.ca/excel-downloads-current-historical

Province of Nova Scotia. (2025, February 7). Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Communications Nova Scotia. https://beta.novascotia.ca/government/education-and-early-childhood-development

Alex Stapleton
STUDENT
BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT | Managing Data and Information Major
alex.stapleton@dal.ca