It’s Time To Invest In First Nation Education

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The greatest problem that just about every First Nation across Canada has when it comes to education is a lack of finances. In contrast, the biggest concern that the government of Canada has at this moment is what to do with billions of dollars designated for a stimulus package. To many First Nation educators, Aboriginal leaders and Native people across the country this is the perfect time to spend some of this money on projects that would help take my people out of Third-World living conditions.

Many First Nation leaders are working with educators and education organizations to try to show the government that our schools need more funding in order to provide our children with a proper education. Non-Native communities take for granted the fact that their schools and educational institutions provide a high level of education and services for their children. This is very different in Native communities. Many First Nations suffer from a lack of decent or even safe running water, high-priced groceries and for isolated communities prohibitively expensive transportation costs.

The cost of educating our children is also substantial considering that many of our teaching professionals have to come from outside the community and they have to be housed, fed and paid a premium salary to relocate to a remote area.

In late February, Grand Chief Phil Fontaine, of the Assembly of First Nations, made a presentation on the present situation of Aboriginal education in Canada at the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) Summit on Aboriginal Education in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In terms of supporting education, he pointed that First Nation schools receive lower levels of funding on a per student basis compared to provincial schools across the country. In fact, funding for First Nation education is on average $2,000 less per student compared to provincial schools. In addition, federal funding levels are capped at a rate of a 2 percent increase per year which is inadequate considering that the population growth in First Nations is shown to be 6.2 percent per year. This means that every year there are more students attending school but with less funding to support their education.

In addition, Chief Fontaine pointed out that there are 42 First Nations in the country without schools and twice that number with inadequate schools in need of repair. One example is the JR Nakogee Elementary School in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast. The school there was contaminated with diesel oil that turned it into a health hazard and resulted in its closure in 2000. A temporary solution was put in place to install portable units to create a makeshift school for hundreds of students. This temporary solution has created an unsafe and unsuitable education environment for students. Attawapiskat has been promised on several occasions by different federal ministers that a new school would be built, however nothing has ever come of this. The children of Attawapiskat still attend school in an inadequate environment of portable units.

Currently the government of Canada is developing a plan to spend a $3 billion stimulus budget. It makes sense to me that now is the time to send some of these funds towards education for First Nations. In the short term, this funding would generate employment, business opportunities and training for First Nation people. In the long run it would help to provide proper educational services for students in these communities.

There are all kinds of projects to spend these billions on and many communities are competing for their share of the pie. When you think about it funding for education is an investment in the future. If we support our young people at this stage in their lives, it will help them acquire a decent education and the opportunity to become independent and productive members in their community and society in general.

As Chief Fontaine recently pointed out it makes good economic sense to invest in our First Nations as the alternatives are grim. It costs on average $95,000 a year to incarcerate someone. In comparison, educating someone in a public school for one year costs the government on average $9,704. At a period in our country’s and indeed our world’s history where we have to take a serious look at how we handle our money, let’s put it where it counts. We can choose to ignore our youth and pay a lot for our neglect years later or we can invest in them now and be rewarded by watching a generation of independent and bright productive people develop to help our First Nations and ultimately the country.

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