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New, comprehensive education system needed for First Nations: report

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 02/8/2012 12:13 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan says he won't commit to funding or a timeline based on the panel's report until he's had time to review it. (ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)

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OTTAWA – First Nations need structure, money and national support to save another generation of children on reserves from a life of poverty and despair, a national panel recommended today.

The three-member panel was appointed last year by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo. The chief recommendation is to create a First Nations Education Act which recognizes the right to an education, outlines the responsibilities for everybody involved and ensures the education system is controlled by First Nations. Statutory funding which is reliable and based on the needs of individual communities, not an average amount of money per child, is also necessary.

Regional support networks, similar to but not necessarily the same as school boards, are also necessary, the panel said.

"There isn’t a First Nations education system in Canada," said panel chair Scott Haldane. "Without that support it’s very difficult for them to achieve the goals they have for young people and for young people to achieve their full potential."

Haldane said there are some examples in Canada where First Nations on their own have created school systems and those have been successful.

He was clear to say the recommendations don’t really work if the government cherry-picks from among them.

Duncan would not commit to implementing any of the recommendations, nor would he commit any dollars to improving First Nations education. He received the report this morning, just prior to its being made public. He said he needed more time to go through it.

He did suggest the three-month timeline for an implementation commission was not going to happen. Duncan said the timelines in the report are "aspirational."

The panel wants an interim commission set up to begin implementing the recommendations within three months.

As a stopgap measure financially, they recommended Ottawa increase funding for education on reserves by the same amount provincial governments are increasing funding to public schools in 2012-13. In Manitoba that won’t amount to much extra money as Ottawa capped funding increases for First Nations at two per cent annually more than a decade ago. The provincial government recently announced a 2.2 per cent increase in funding for public schools.

Mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

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