Attawapiskat exposes urgent need for native education reforms
Posted on November 30, 2011 in Education Debates
Source: Globe & Mail — Authors: John Ibbitson
TheGlobeandMail.com – news/politics
Published Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 John Ibbitson
Sooner or later – actually, sooner – the politicians and the reporters and the Red Cross will leave Attawapiskat, the temporary fixes will run out or run down, and things will return to the old, awful, normal.
Any hope for real change will depend on whether two reports coming out over the next few weeks succeed in convincing the Harper government that the time has come for powerful reform of native education.
As with so many other reserves, the schools at Attawapiskat, a remote reserve on the edge of James Bay in Northern Ontario, are bare bones and run down. Lousy or non-existent schools are part, though only part, of the reason why 60 per cent of status Indian children never finish high school.
Native education in Canada is simply a string of disasters. There’s no need here to recite again the ills of the residential schools system; its replacement – on-reserve schools funded by Ottawa and run by local band councils – haven’t done much better.
This is more than a tragedy; it’s a waste, since half of all native Canadians are under 25, while the rest of Canada is growing older and in need of skilled young workers.
But a new way of educating natives on reserves is gaining increasing attention. In Nova Scotia and British Columbia, native school boards are pooling resources, supervising on-reserve schools and overseeing a curriculum that meets provincial standards while also emphasizing native languages, culture and history. These native school boards are starting to deliver promising results.
An education panel jointly commissioned by the Harper government and the Assembly of First Nations is expected to recommend similar boards across the country when it reports in the first week of February.
The Senate aboriginal affairs committee will release its own report in December. The senators have been talking to the same people that the education panel has been talking to, and are expected to reach a similar conclusion.
Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the AFN, is convinced that comprehensive national education reform is crucial to breaking the cycle of native poverty.
“We really do need some sort of transformation,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “We need to smash the status quo.”
Mr. Atleo is meeting Stephen Harper later this week to discuss the situation at Attawapiskat.
But the crucial meeting will come next year when the Prime Minister meets with aboriginal leaders.
Mr. Harper has let it be known that he is prepared to put new money into native education, but only if he can be convinced it will deliver results.
There is a window here. The misery of Attawapiskat has refocused attention on the desperate need to break the spiral of aboriginal poverty, poor health and educational failure.
Beyond the moral urgency is cold-blooded logic: Canada simply can’t afford to waste the labour potential of an educated native workforce.
Decent on-reserve schools, properly equipped and staffed with high-quality teachers, supported by professional school boards that employ a rigorous but culturally appropriate curriculum: If the Conservatives spent real money to make even some of that possible, it would be Nixon going to China and then some.
< http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/john-ibbitson/attawapiskat-exposes-urgent-need-for-native-education-reforms/article2254653/ >
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Education Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
One Response to “Attawapiskat exposes urgent need for native education reforms”
|
Recent Comments
It is interesting to note that in the first meeting between Mr. Atleo, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Prime Minister Harper, neither of these leaders mentioned the crisis present in Attawapiskat (see Gloria Galloway article, “After six years in office”, Globe and Mail). Along with this, Prime Minister Harper has agreed to meet for the first time with First Nations leaders on January 24th of next year. How could it be that the Prime Minister is so out of touch with the problems facing the majority of Aboriginal cultures when they comprise some of the poorest and disadvantaged groups in Canada?
In addition to this, Mr. Harper stated that before he funds native education, he would have to be convinced that results would be seen. I believe that if Mr. Harper visited communities like Attawapiskat and observed the hunger to learn that these children exhibit, he would have proof that significant results would be obtained.
In my opinion, judging from Mr. Harper’s previous behaviour, he is not concerned with the welfare of the First Nations populations in Canada. He should not be relied upon to make any changes to the communities to better their situation. Taking note from the cases of native school boards in BC and Nova Scotia, it is proven that real change occurs only when people ban together to address common issues.
Although the author does not that by not providing education to Aboriginal children, the nation is losing out on skilled workers for the future generation, the “moral urgency” of the situation cannot be undermined. After all, these are human beings who have rights that cannot be ignored; especially in a country as well off as Canada.
All in all, education is a crucial step to breaking the cycle of poverty that is present within Aboriginal populations. However, it will not be until there is a complete eqauality of opportunity for First Nations youth that this succession will be broken. With a right wing party in power, inequality is seen as ideal in that elite groups stand on the backs of others.