An independent education report concludes that jurisdiction, not just money, is what is needed to help NAN fix its education issues
Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s educational co-ordinator advisor says that pouring more money into the political territory’s schools isn’t going to fix their education problems.
They need jurisdiction.
“We need to be able to make decisions. We need to be able to design and deliver the programs that are going to meet our students’ needs,” said Dobi-Dawn Frenette.
NAN released an independent education report Tuesday that outlines the need for a new educational regime; the report states that education administered under the Indian Act has failed and that First Nations need to take control over educating their youth and they need adequate and sustainable funding.
First Nations schools are funded on a formula created in 1988, said Frenette, adding it has only been updated once in 1996.
“When the formula was created it ignored a lot of the essential components of a quality education system today, including libraries, technology, recreation, a number of different things you would find in a provincial school,” she said.
In many NAN communities, their schools are in wooden buildings more than 20 years old that haven’t been able to withstand the northern climate.
“We often have issues with air quality, black mold, safe drinking water,” Frenette said.
“A lot of times the children aren’t in an environment that is safe for them.”
Some communities don’t even have schools and children go to class in portable or retrofitted buildings.
Frenette said those buildings obviously weren’t meant as learning environments and have no gymnasium, library, lunchrooms or special education resource rooms.
“That sense of a learning environment really isn’t there because it’s fragmented,” she said.
“With the various pressures the First Nations have on their infrastructure, a lot of times we’re making do with what’s available and just trying to make the best out of a really unfortunate situation.“
Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose, who holds the education portfolio for NAN, said the report also emphasizes the required investments in education for First Nations communities.
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They often can’t afford the transportation costs for items like textbooks and computers.
“A lot of our educators are faced with a choice of having no textbooks or maybe half the textbooks they really need,” he said. “Those are the real critical issues we talked about in our report.”
The report also proposes solutions.
Waboose said funding needs to be put into education infrastructure and they need jurisdiction over education in NAN communities so they won’t be faced with depending on government programs to sustain their education system.
Frenette said the solutions will come from working together.
“The time is long past where we sit and point fingers,” she said.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to argue there is a huge difference in the funding that’s provided from the provinces to the school boards versus what’s provided to First Nations. We need to come to the table with a willingness to work together.”
This is a human rights issue, she added, noting it not about First Nation or non-First Nation.
“It’s about the fact that our children, whoever they are within Canada, have that human right to education. I think the general population would really support that; they would want to ensure that regardless of where a child is they have access to things such as education programming,” Frenette said.
Follow Jodi Lundmark on Twitter: @JodiL_reporter
