Transcript Document

Policy Directions in Aboriginal Education
South of 60°
for the First Ministers’ Meeting
July 2005
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Background
• Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable and
follow-up sessions on lifelong learning
resulted in:
– better understanding of challenges and
opportunities in Aboriginal education
– unprecedented commitment to develop ideas and
strategies to improve educational outcomes for
Aboriginal peoples and communities
• National Aboriginal Organizations,
Government of Canada, and provinces and
territories now have the opportunity to work
together to achieve positive outcomes in
Aboriginal education.
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Unique multilateral process underway
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Commitment to hold meeting of First
Ministers and National Aboriginal leaders
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Multilateral planning process launched in
February 2005, led by Federal-ProvincialTerritorial-Aboriginal Steering Committee.
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Multilateral working groups
• Steering Committee established federalprovincial-territorial-Aboriginal working groups on
the three areas of focus using distinctions-based
approach.
• Working groups addressed specific issues with
respect to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. This
includes urban Aboriginal peoples, non-status
Indians, Aboriginal women and youth and those
living in rural, northern, and remote areas.
• Each group had an Aboriginal,
provincial/territorial and federal Chair.
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Identifying practical, concrete ways to
improve outcomes…
• Recurring theme is the need to establish a
process for continuing dialogue, action and
accountability recognizing a longer term effort is
required.
• In short term, focus is on identifying practical
and concrete initiatives to improve outcomes.
• Working groups produced wide range of ideas
for further consideration - early in the planning
process.
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Proposed priority areas
• Aboriginal Health Blueprint process is
proceeding on separate but linked track.
• Exploratory multilateral work has been
undertaken in three other areas:
Relationships, Education (K-12), and Housing.
• At June 27, 2005 meeting of national
Aboriginal leaders and federal, provincial, and
territorial ministers, agreement that these three
areas, in addition to health, form the basis of
the FMM agenda.
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Multilateral process will move to next
stage over the summer
• Work will continue over the summer to further
refine potential initiatives in areas of focus.
– Although focus is on policy directions put forward at
the Policy Retreat, opportunities in other areas could
also be explored.
• Will continue to be collaborative, involving F/P/T
governments and National Aboriginal
Organizations.
• Process expected to be more streamlined and
focused on achieving multilateral agreement on
the outcomes of the First Ministers/Aboriginal
Leaders meeting.
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At the same time, bilateral discussions
are underway
• For education, INAC Regional Directors General
and the Office of the Federal Interlocutor will
have the lead for engaging their provincial and
territorial contacts.
• Focus is on K-12 initiatives, both on and off
reserve.
• Work will continue in other areas of lifelong
learning programming, including early learning
and child care, adult basic education, postsecondary education, Aboriginal languages and
cultures, literacy and essential skills, and
connectivity.
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Key Objectives
To support:
• Aboriginal learners by enhancing quality,
accessibility and relevance of programs and
supports;
• Education systems by strengthening planning,
management, and pedagogical tools and
services; and,
• Interconnections and collaboration between
Aboriginal learners, educators, federalprovincial/territorial governments and other
stakeholders.
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Strategic Policy Directions
• As a crucial first step, INAC proposes to
pursue the transformation of Aboriginal
education by focusing on five key
elements at the K-12 level:
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Educational Jurisdiction
Regional First Nation Education Systems
School Innovation
Strategic Performance and Reporting
Measures
– Off Reserve K-12 Initiatives
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Educational Jurisdiction
Current National Context:
• Further progress on First Nation jurisdiction
over First Nation education a key priority.
• Some First Nations are already engaged in
jurisdictional negotiations with the federal
government, including:
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First Nations Education Steering Committee
Union of Ontario Indians
Nishnawbe-Aski Nation
Fort Francis (Treaty 3)
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Educational Jurisdiction (cont’d)
Proposed Policy Direction:
• Consider issues and options to support First
Nations in their development of governance
models for education and to move towards
recognition of First Nation jurisdiction over
education on reserve.
• Could include the development of strategies to
implement educational jurisdiction outside of selfgovernment negotiations.
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Regional First Nation Education Systems
Current National Context:
• In the provinces, school boards serve an integral secondlevel (i.e. above school level) support function within
successful education systems.
• In the absence of such support for on-reserve schools,
First Nations have taken the initiative to create regional
school board-type entities in recent years.
• However, these organizations have different levels of
capacity or are non-existent in some parts of Canada.
• Furthermore, these organizations are in the
developmental stages and currently lack the stable and
multi-year funding provided to their counterparts in
provincial systems.
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Regional First Nation Education Systems
(cont’d)
Proposed Policy Direction:
• Provide investments to build on the existing
efforts of First Nation second-level service
organizations.
• First Nation schools would be able to draw on
a range of school board-type services and
benefit from economies of scale.
• Long-term goal could be to have complete
geographic coverage by these regional
systems across Canada.
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School Innovation
Current National Context:
• Demonstrated need for increased and more stable funding
at the school level; a joint INAC-AFN Band-Operated
Funding Formula Review is considering the level of
resourcing provided to First Nation schools on reserve.
• Overlap of goals and objectives in the INAC programs
(New Paths, Teacher Recruitment & Retention, Parental &
Community Engagement Strategy) and in the development
of education systems.
• The Auditor General has noted failure to act on
recommendations from evaluations of First Nation schools.
• Provincial school systems support individual schools in the
implementation of school/community-based initiatives to
address their unique circumstances and challenges.
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School Innovation (cont’d)
Proposed Policy Direction:
• Provide funding at the community level to support
development of multi-year success plans to
respond to local challenges, opportunities, and
priorities.
• Would support the efforts of on-reserve schools
to respond to their school’s evaluation
recommendations.
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Strategic Performance and Reporting
Measures
Current National Context:
• Improvement needed to overall
management framework to ensure
accountability and measure
performance.
• Heavy reporting burden on First Nations.
• For First Nation education, there is no
data management system similar to
those provinces use to assess the
effectiveness of their education systems.
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Strategic Performance and Reporting
Measures (cont’d)
Proposed Policy Direction:
• Development and deployment of strategic performance
and reporting measures, including an accompanying
data management system for First Nations and INAC.
• Based on core performance indicators developed with
First Nations.
• Flexible enough to accommodate both local and
regional needs while allowing for efficient electronic
reporting to INAC.
• Would enable schools to access and use data collected
in designing their success plans.
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Off-Reserve Initiatives
Current National Context:
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About two-thirds of school aged Aboriginal children attend
schools in provincial/territorial education systems.
•
40% of on-reserve First Nation children attend provincial
elementary/secondary schools.
•
Government of Canada historically focused on-reserve but
recognizes education issues also extend off-reserve, and has
made improving educational outcomes for all Aboriginal people
(First Nation, Métis, Inuit) a priority.
•
Shared objectives to work together to improve outcomes and
report on results.
•
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada working on Action Plan
for Aboriginal education; Government of Canada will be asked to
participate.
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Off-Reserve Initiatives (cont’d)
Proposed Policy Direction:
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Office of the Federal Interlocutor will enter into agreements
with willing provincial/territorial, education and Aboriginal
organizations to improve academic success of off-reserve
Aboriginal students (e.g. research, data collection, parental
involvement projects, stay-in-school initiatives, teacher
education initiatives, etc).
•
These agreements will depend upon provincial/territorial
willingness and involvement, and will be flexible to account
for regional circumstances.
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OFI seeking long-term partnerships with interested
provinces/territories, systems, and institutions.
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The Inuit Relations Secretariat will enter into discussions with
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and other relevant education Inuit
organizations, about identifying measures and initiatives to
improve the Inuit education system and articulate some
outcomes and suggestions for concrete actions.
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Current Process
• Regional INAC officials, in conjunction with OFI and the
Inuit Relations Secretariat, are briefing provincial/territorial
education and Aboriginal affairs officials.
• Seeking out opportunities for consensus building and
expressions of interest from provincial/territorial
governments to work together on specific initiatives.
• Seeking provincial/territorial areas of priority in Aboriginal
education.
• First Ministers’ Meeting currently planned for November
2005.
• Continued collaborative work to further develop these
proposed directions to make strategic transformation a
reality.
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