It is time the federal Parliament passed a First Nations Education Act to correct the failures that have kept native schools mired in mediocrity.
Currently, native students who attend federally funded reserve schools receive about 30 per cent less funding than students in provincially funded public schools.
Their educational outcomes are nothing short of disastrous. Only 40 per cent graduate from high school, compared with nearly 90 per cent in the general population. Slightly more than 5 per cent of 25-to-34-year-old natives have graduated from university, as against nearly 30 per cent among other Canadians.
Those who do graduate from high school are nearly twice as likely to hold a job. For those who don't, unemployment is common.
The discrepancy in funding between on-reserve and off-reserve students could be dealt with, if the federal government gradually raised the per-student funding formula to meet the provincial standard. But money can't solve everything.
Each reserve has its own elementary school, and some also have high schools, which receive about $1.2-billion a year from the federal government. Too many of them operate as islands isolated from any systematic oversight.
Although school boards are often lampooned as ineffectual bureaucracies, they do provide valuable tools to their member schools. They are able to compare schools in order to measure performance, develop curriculum, make sure standards are being met in hiring and training, provide resources for special needs education, and so on.
Teacher turnover at reserve schools is often high, pay is low and job security can be non-existent. At some schools, as many as 10 new teachers have arrived in a year. Schools, like children, need stability to thrive. Teachers need to know their jobs do not depend on the good graces of powerful families on the reserve.
One answer is to create First Nations education authorities, which would take up many of the functions of a school board by allowing native bands to group themselves into larger conglomerations, while simultaneously respecting the principle of native control of native education.
Some native multi-school organizations have been created in various parts of the country, but they lack both resources and clout. British Columbia has tried with its 2007 First Nations Education Act to travel this route, but its narrow scope is just a beginning.
Canada should invest in a systematic, national framework for native education that ensures native children receive government funding comparable to their non-native peers. Anything less is unjust.
