Wawatay News
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Self-governance on education needed: NAN
Waboose says increased funding not enough
ᐧᐊᐧᐊᑌ ᐊᒋᒧᐧᐃᓇᐣ
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Citing a range of problems with the current First Nations education system, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) is calling on increased funding and decreased federal government control for education in Aboriginal communities. Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose presented NAN’s report on the challenges and needs in education on Feb. 7, outlining a range of problems faced in communities of northwestern Ontario. “The majority of Canadians have never seen what passes for a school in most of our communities,” Waboose said. “They would be shocked if they did. What needs to be stressed is that we don’t even have the basics.” Waboose pointed out that five communities in northern Ontario do not even have schools. Meanwhile the communities that do have schools nearly always lack things that southern students take for granted, such as libraries, arts facilities and adequate amounts of textbooks and other supplies. NAN’s report was released one day before a national First Nations education panel report, commissioned by the federal government in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations. While NAN’s concerns were similar to those expressed by the national panel, NAN did not endorse the national panel. Waboose called it a “flawed and deficient process, established without input from First Nations.” The problem with education in NAN communities boils down to two main issues, Waboose said. The first is the chronic underfunding of First Nations schools by the federal government, which has led to the infrastructure gaps between First Nations and other communities. The second is the fact that while First Nations call for self-governance on education,
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NAN Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose presented the First Nation’s call for increased self-governance on education. the federal government has a vested interest in keeping the status quo. NAN has been working on negotiations over self-governance of education since 1997. The new report questions the government’s commitment to that process.
“The majority of Canadians have never seen what passes as a school in our communities.” “One key to effective implementation of education selfgovernance is to remove Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC) as the responsible department for such negotiations,” the report states. “There is an inherent conflict of interest for INAC in such negotiations given the impact on reduction of federal staff and control currently exercised by INAC.” The solution to the problems does not stop at self-governance, however. Any self-governance model’s funding would largely come from the federal
government, and as Waboose noted, the current funding regime is inadequate to meet the needs of students in the communities. The deputy grand chief said that funding levels for First Nations schools should be, at the very least, equal to those in province-run schools. Current NAN estimates state that First Nations on-reserve students receive about $8,000 per year in funding, while provincialschool students received more than $13,000 in government funding per year. On top of that Waboose said the government fails to take into account the high cost of shipping materials into fly-in communities, and the effect that has on education. For example the NAN report compares the price of two cases of paper between Thunder Bay and Fort Severn. In Thunder Bay the total cost is $115.17. In Fort Severn, when you consider the cost of shipping, the cost is $351.17. “You can’t just apply the same formula you’d use in the south,” Waboose said. “Transporting textbooks, for example, half of the cost of the textbooks is the cost of shipping.”
Wawatay Radio Network is broadcast on 89.9 FM in Sioux Lookout and 106.7 FM in Timmins to 38 community-based affiliated radio stations. WRN is also distributed nationally on Bell TV Channel 962.
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