An historic agreement among B.C. First Nations, the provinical and federal governments will allow First Nations to control their own education. First Nations will be allowed to set up their own school boards, certify teachers, and determine the curriculum to be taught from kindergarten through Grade 12 for tens of thousands of B.C. aboriginal children.
The deal is an important milestone that everyone hopes will be an important, positive development in improving educational outcomes for native children. First Nations leaders have been seeking jurisdiction over education since 1972. About 70 percent of aboriginal children living on reserves fail to graduate from high school and only 27 percent of the first nations population between 15 and 44 years old hold a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree (compared to 46 of the Canadian population).
Gaining control over schools is just a small step, however, alleviating the poverty and other deleterious social conditions that disproportionately affect First Nations people remain huge problems that must be addressed. And, as in any context, to expect that educational improvements can be had without improving the economical and social conditions is fool-hearty.
As Jean Anyon has said, trying to reform schools without reforming the social and economic situations the schools sit in is like cleaning the air on one side of a screen door.
B.C. First Nations sign agreement to Control Own Education
NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. (CP) – After decades of abuse in native residential schools, B.C. First Nations are moving in the opposite direction to educate their children with a new agreement on aboriginal education.
“The purpose of (residential) schools was to take the Indian out of the kids,” said First Nations Summit Chief Ed John, who himself went to a residential school for seven years.
The framework agreement between the B.C. and federal governments and natives gives First Nations control over their children’s education.
After legislation has been changed by both governments natives would be able to certify teachers and schools and establish their own curriculum and exam standards.
John believes the changes will allow them to close the huge graduation gap between natives and non-natives.
“Anything has got to be better than what we have now,” he said.
“Our kids are dropping out like flies. What better message (is there) than having your communities taking the responsibility for (their) kids.”
Nathan Matthew, the negotiator with the First Nations education steering committee, told a news conference Wednesday the system is created on the ashes of the residential school system.
“The signing of this education agreement today will empower B.C. First Nations to deliver quality education on their own terms,” he said.
“Education that reflects First Nations culture, tradition and provides contemporary knowledge and skills.”
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell believes the changes will increase graduation rates for native children, which hovers below 50 per cent.
“It’s very important to recognize people’s history and to show respect for their culture,” he said.
Campbell pointed out the Nisga’a nation in northwest B.C. improved its graduation rate to more than 60 per cent when it took over its education program.
He said the goal is to not only give young First Nations the education they need, but to ground them in their own culture and traditions, “so they have a sense of confidence they need to deal with the world.”
“In the past we have failed young First Nations students,” the premier said.
Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice called the program a model for other provinces to follow.
“There are other provinces such as Nova Scotia and Alberta, Quebec, that are similarly interested in the concept,” he said.
Prentice said the education idea has been tested in the past.
“Everywhere where we’ve tried pilot projects. . .where the First Nations community has been heavily involved in the education system, we’ve had great success.”
Neither Prentice nor Premier Campbell would say what the program may cost, but said it would be funded with startup costs and on a per-student basis.
Squamish First Nations Chief Gibby Jacob, who hosted the news conference, said the importance of the announcement is underscored by the generations of system failures natives have tried to learn under.
Vancouver Sun: Natives to control own education
Natives to control own education
Historic pact between B.C. and Ottawa seeks to end high dropout rate for aboriginal kids
Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
VICTORIA — British Columbia’s first nations will be given direct control over the education of their children in a historic agreement — more than three decades in the making — to be unveiled today by the federal and provincial governments.
Seeking to end the high drop-out rate among native children on reserves, a failure often linked to the poverty in which many Canadian aboriginals live, the federal and provincial governments will allow first nations to set up their own school boards, certify teachers and set curriculum from kindergarten to Grade 12 for tens of thousands of aboriginal children in the province.
“It means that first nations parents and communities would have the right and the responsibility to determine how their children are educated and to determine the content of that education,” states one of the federal government’s background documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.
The deal, to be announced in North Vancouver by federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and Premier Gordon Campbell, is being hailed as a first in Canada and an “an important milestone” that could be emulated in other provinces, according to the draft agreement.
At least 40 of the almost 200 first nations in B.C., representing about 160,000 people, have already indicated they want to form school boards. They would be sanctioned to hand out provincial high-school graduation diplomas, known as the Dogwood.
The ground-breaking deal also stipulates that first nations school boards must agree to an oversight system, the details of which have yet to be spelled out, to ensure they meet provincial educational standards. In another surprise move, native parents will get the right to take the federal money allotted to each native child’s education and move it into the provincial school system if they choose.
For federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice the deal represents his first major policy move since the death of the Kelowna accord, the $5.2-billion deal that Premier Gordon Campbell and other premiers and native leaders signed with former Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2004. Prime Minister Stephen Harper distanced himself from that plan, promising he would still meet its goal of improving the lives of natives.
“I take my hat off to Minister Prentice,” said Campbell, who had warned Ottawa it risked tarnishing the Crown’s image if it bailed on the Kelowna accord’s poverty alleviation goals. “This has never been done before in Canada. It’s a historic step. It’s a first step.
“There may be times things don’t work as smoothly as we want … but the real spirit of the Kelowna accord, if you want to call it the Kelowna accord, is an open partnership with first nations to close the gap that has separated them from the rest of society for so long. It’s erasing the boundaries of the third solitude that first nations live in. And this is what this will do.”
The deal being offered today is voluntary and there is no unanimity on the part of B.C. first nations as to whether they will sign on. While most native leaders have been calling for greater autonomy and control of schools, others feel they aren’t ready or fear giving up their one-on-one relationship with the federal government.
Under today’s agreement, a first nation choosing to set up its own school board must opt out of parts of the Indian Act that allow the federal government to appoint third parties to run reserve schools. The federal government will be introducing legislation to make that possible in the next few months.
Education has been long seen by native leaders across Canada as one of the reasons for the chronic poverty and unemployment amongst the country’s approximately one million natives, who are twice as likely to be unemployed than other Canadians.
Since 1972, in a paper entitled Indian Control of Indian Education, native leaders have been “seeking recognition by the federal and provincial government of first nations’ jurisdiction over education,” Ottawa notes in its position paper.
But there has also long been a divisive debate about what is the best way for first nations to take control of schools.
There is no doubt that native children in reserve schools are faring poorly. According to the Assembly of First Nations, “there has been literally no progress over the last four years in closing the gap in high school graduation rates between first nations and other Canadians. At the current rate, it will take 28 years for first nations to catch up to the non-aboriginal population”
The statistics reveal a major disadvantage for young aboriginals. Abut 70 per cent of children living on reserve fail to graduate from high school. As well, the Assembly of First Nations estimates that 10,000 aboriginal students who are eligible and looking to attend post-secondary education are on waiting lists because of underfunding.
Only about “27 per cent of the first nations population between 15 and 44 years of age hold a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree, compared with 46 per cent of the Canadian population within the same age group,” the assembly says.
mcernetig@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
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