Report on Improving Education on Reserves Blog #5

Report Title: Improving Education on Reserves: A First Nations Education Authority
Author: Mechael Mendelson

URL:http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/684ENG.pdf
Published by:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy https://www.caledoninst.org

This report addresses and questions why no progress has been made on measurable graduation outcomes for youth on reserve since the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples asked the question: “Why, with so many sincere efforts to change the quality of Aboriginal education, have the overall results been so
disappointing?” [Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1996].
To quote Mendelson(2008)
Education is the bootstrap which First Nations communities must use to improve their
social and economic conditions. Like all others in Canada, Aboriginal children need to acquire an acceptable education to have a chance of succeeding in the modern economy. An acceptable education is more than high school graduation – a post-secondary diploma or degree, or a trade certificate, is required – but high school graduation is the door through which most students must pass to go on to post-secondary schooling. The most recent Census statistics, backed up by departmental data, show that this door is shut for the majority of students on reserve (pg2).

Although this report addresses the issue of education on reserve, it does so from a higher level systems approach.