Leaders plan to exceed public school standards (fwd)

Sun Jul 9 20:29:40 UTC 2006

Leaders plan to exceed public school standards
First nations celebrate pact giving them control over own education

Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, July 06, 2006

[CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun. Peter Jacob holds symbolic money at
a ceremony at a Squamish First Nation school in North Vancouver
celebrating the deal giving B.C. natives control over their children's
education.]

B.C. - Aboriginal leaders celebrating a landmark deal giving them
control over their children's education said Wednesday their first
priority will be to set standards for on-reserve schools and teachers
that are even higher than those in B.C.'s public schools.

They will also modify the provincial curriculum to incorporate first
nations language, history, culture and traditions in all grades while
still teaching what is needed for their students to graduate from Grade
12 with the provincial certificate known as the Dogwood, said Tyrone
McNeil, vice-president of the First Nations Education Steering
Committee (FNESC).

"If students are learning to count to 20, why should they do that in
English? We will teach as much as we can through our own languages,"
said McNeil, whose committee will become -- in essence -- the first
aboriginal school board.

FNESC will also work with the B.C. education ministry to revise social
studies and history courses to include more lessons about first nations
and to add aboriginal literature to language arts classes. They are
already retooling English 12 to include first nations authors and
poets, he noted.

The deal, ratified Wednesday during a traditional ceremony outside a
Squamish First Nation school in North Vancouver, is the first of its
kind in Canada, although Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said it
will serve as an example for other provinces. Nova Scotia, Alberta and
Quebec are already moving in a similar direction, he noted.

It is hoped that giving first nations control over their schools and a
greater voice in the education of aboriginal students in the public
school system will bring success to students who have been failing
classes and dropping out in startling numbers. The graduation rate for
aboriginal students is 46 per cent, compared to 79 per cent for the
student population overall.

"This will dramatically change first nations education -- not only in
British Columbia but I believe across Canada," the minister told about
100 people gathered under a tent in the school yard to hear details of
the agreement and witness the signing ceremony.

Premier Gordon Campbell acknowledged the education system has not been
good for aboriginal children.

"We have failed young first nations students and the first thing we have
to do is recognize that."

Later, he said the goal is to ensure first nations students get an
education "that grounds them in their own culture and their own
tradition so that they have the sense of competence they need to deal
with the world. I think this is a major step in that direction."

Nathan Matthew, chief negotiator and FNESC representative, said the
genesis of the ground-breaking deal was a paper written in 1972 by
native leaders titled Indian Control of Indian Education. Around that
same time, first nations were opening their own schools "on the ashes
of residential schools" (the last of which closed in 1984), he said.

Since first nations schools were on reserves, they were technically
administered by Ottawa, but in fact the federal Indian and Northern
Affairs Department -- with only a few dozen employees to regulate
hundreds of schools across the country -- has done little more than
sign the cheques, Prentice said in an interview.

The department set no standards for student performance, curriculum or
teacher certification, which meant the schools, mostly small and
isolated, were left to develop their own standards "on a hit-and-miss
basis," he said, adding no one should be surprised that they have not
been particularly successful.

Once the deal is given the force of law, FNESC will be empowered to fill
that vacuum, setting standards for schools, teachers and student
achievement. Participation is voluntary, but Prentice predicted more
than half the on-reserve schools will join within the first six months.

More than 40 of the 200 first nations in B.C. are already part of FNESC,
which has been gradually assuming responsibility for first nations
education.

jsteffenhagen at png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2006