Some First Nations leaders have decided to use a proposed federal bill aimed at improving on reserve education as an to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says one of Canada leading expert on Indigenous education. He wrote the report with Michael Mendelson, a senior scholar with the Caledon Institute of Social Policy who helped develop the Canada Health Act, John Richards, a professor with Simon Fraser University public policy institute and Gordon Martell, from the Waterhen Lake Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan and current superintendent of the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.
aside the political heat over the bill, it is very significant, said McCue, who is a member of Trent University Board of Governors. ralph lauren outlet has never been an education bill that speaks to First Nations education and the bill does introduce elements that will lead people choose to do that to a First Nation system of education. That is historic. It is important and necessary. The Act sets the foundation for that. Photo courtesy of Harvey McCue
McCue said the bill, however, has become damage in the ongoing battle between some First Nation leaders, elements of the Idle No More movement and Ottawa.
of the heat that is being generated from the First Nations side is really directed at the prime minister and this current government and less at the content of the Act, said McCue. Nations leaders are, for good reason, very unhappy and upset with the Harper government and it appears that they are using any instrument they can to damage or wound the prime minister and would be unfortunate, in my opinion, if the Act disappears. proposed bill, which comes with $1.9 billion in new funding for reserve education, in currently in Parliamentary limbo following the resignation of Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo last Friday. Atleo said he resigned to avoid becoming a lightning rod in the raging debate over the Harper government education bill.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt office said the Conservatives will keep the bill on hold until the AFN decides what it wants to do on the issue. The AFN chiefs committee on education is meeting May 15 and a special chiefs assembly is scheduled for May 27 in Ottawa.
The proposed bill would create standards for on reserve schools and for the administrators responsible for running the schools. It would also create a Joint Council of Education Professionals which will take on an advisory role for the minister and an oversight role for First Nation schools. The majority of the council members would be chosen by the Aboriginal Affairs Minister.
Aside from outdated and unused sections in the Indian Act, reserve education is primarily governed by contribution agreements between bands and the federal department. The minister currently has absolute power over education in these agreements.
I am reasonably satisfied (with the bill). It is an important step. It introduces a level of accountability that has never been there on the part of principal, on the part of education directors, said McCue. allows for the development, it allows for the introduction of new curriculum. It allows for communities or school boards to decide to establish Cree or Blackfoot or Haida the language of instruction and that hasn been the case. said the bill does have some major weaknesses, including giving the minister too much power over the setting of regulations. Under the bill, First Nations would not have direct input with the minister on the development of regulations. Instead, the joint council would mediate the process.
think that the way that the clause on regulation is written it undercuts, it undermines the title of the Act, said McCue. are really what will determine all the issues around curriculum, language of instruction, the really important parts of the Act. If those regulations are determined and decided by the minister through the department then the notion of control is illusionary. also said the bill fails with its joint council which falls far short of what was recommended in the report to the assistant deputy minister. ralph lauren outlet The report called for the creation of a national agency for First Nation education which could provide advice to the minister but also undertake research, provide training and as a body where the experiences and expertise from the regions could be shared and developed.
The report, which Valcourt office refused to release, also said that an education bill should allow First Nations to choose whether they wanted to opt in.
joint council is not going to have the kinds of resources that the ministry of education would have, said McCue. joint council is really going to serve as a kind of overseer of what is happening with the school success plans and accountability and so on. said Harper is the first prime minister to attempt anything this substantial on education since the Trudeau Liberal government accepted the National Indian Brotherhood policy paper on education in 1972 and 1973.
The federal government has, since the 1950s, tried to offload its responsibility for First Nation education to the provinces, he said.
chose to allow the provincial ministries of education to basically be the prime educator of our children. It was easier for them to do that, said McCue. since 1950s and the gradual phasing out of the residential school system, we have had the wholesale introduction and continued introduction of the provincial curriculum from k to 12 and the presence of teachers that have been educated solely by provincial teaching institutions. the results have been disastrous, he said.
has become painfully obvious that the status quo is inadequate and the provincial curriculum is unable to meet our needs, it is irrelevant to the needs of our community, said McCue. ralph lauren outlet the teachers who are trained exclusively in provincially accredited teachers colleges aren trained properly teach in our schools and our kids have been suffering for way too long as a result.
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