In today’s National Post (Nov 25, 2013), Shawn Atleo AFN National Chief outlined five basic “conditions” that are necessary if the plan for Aboriginal educational reform is to be successful, which includes: First Nation control of education; guaranteed federal funding; protection of language and culture; joint “oversight” of the new education system; and “meaningful” consultation with aboriginals.
The aforementioned conditions Shawn stated echo’s core themes covered in this course that aboriginals are constantly battling. The deep scars from the Residential School era is far from over and appears it will be a continuous issue for many years to come, overshadowing Aboriginals on-going fight for protection and cultural rights.
A somewhat startling fact I got from this article is that First Nations youth represent the fastest growing segment of the population in Canada yet they have one of the lowest graduation rates. Specifics of the draft bill was not mentioned, but it highlighted that Aboriginal leaders are worried because the bill contains no information on the level of funding the federal government would provide for First Nations schools, as well as inadequate bill of support in teaching First Nations languages and culture.