Minister's National Working
Group on Education
The recommendations of the Minister's National Working Group on Education are meant to help set up a high-quality First Nations education system, based on indigenous knowledge, so that students have the necessary knowledge and skills to participate fully in First Nations communities and in Canadian society.
In order to foster excellence in First Nations education,
the Minister's National Working Group on Education
was set up in June 2002. The working group was made
up of 15 Aboriginal educators from across Canada. The
working group reviewed the existing research and did a
rigorous analysis of the following key topics related to
First Nations education:
- infrastructure and funding;
- teacher recruitment and retention;
- jurisdiction;
- racism;
- indigenous knowledge;
- language and culture in curriculum;
- special needs and gifted education;
- early childhood education; and
- parental and community involvement.
On February 12, 2003, the final report of the working
group, called Our Children - Keepers of the Sacred
Knowledge was publicly released. The report included
27 recommendations that, in keeping with the holistic
First Nations philosophy of lifelong learning, span early
childhood to post-secondary education.
Departmental officials are currently working with
First Nations to target the key issues highlighted in
the working group's report and previous research
such as teacher recruitment and retention, parental
and community involvement, and meeting the special
education needs of students.
After the release of the final report, more funding
was allocated for teacher recruitment. This included
$8 million in 2003-2004 and $15 million in 2004-2005 to
help narrow the gap between on reserve and provincial
teachers' salaries. More funding, totalling $2 million in
2003-2004 and $5 million in 2004-2005, has also been
allocated for pilot projects to support and build upon
existing community initiatives to increase parental/
community involvement and also in 2004-2005,
$5 million to enhance professional development
activities for teachers.
For more information on this topic, you can read
the working group's report on the INAC website.
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