Nishnawbe Aski Nation needs to give its youth hope through better education options, says the political organization’s deputy chief.
Deputy chief Goyce Kakegamic spoke at the NAN Education Awareness Conference Wednesday at the Valhalla Inn for the organization’s sixth annual education awareness week.
Kakegamic spoke about how NAN can address the educational gaps between First Nation students and the rest of the province.
He said there are many youth stuck in a sort of limbo – they’re without a high school diploma but too old for provincial secondary programs.
“We have a lot of students who didn’t quite make it,” he said.
“They are stuck. They can’t move forward because they don’t have Grade 12,” Kakegamic added, noting that the solution could lie in steering these students towards apprenticeships in the trades.
The deputy chief said there are many potential partners in the municipal, provincial and federal governments, specifically Ontario Works, which could help youth with living expenses when apprenticing.
“Sometimes when we work in solitude, we’re not as successful as we should be,” Kakegamic said.
Otherwise these youth are left spinning their wheels, he said, adding that without a vision for the future, they often feel worthless, which has led to a suicide epidemic amongst First Nation youth.
“They have to be engaged in that and they can do it,” Kakegamic said. “We just have to provide that so they can go for it.”
But the solution isn’t just education, but also in addressing social issues youth face when leaving their remote Northern home communities to attend school in urban centres like Thunder Bay.
“I think social is more detrimental, more challenging because if you don’t do well in your life, how can you do well in education programs?” the deputy chief said.
“A lot of these people miss out, didn’t quite succeed in their secondary programs coming to an urban society.”
The NAN Chiefs-in-Assembly mandated education awareness week in 2008 to address issues affecting the delivery of First Nation education.
