Demand for Aboriginal teachers on the rise

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The number of Aboriginal teachers working in Saskatoon's public schools is increasing gradually, but attracting and retaining Native educators can be a slow and difficult process, said administrators at the Saskatoon Board of Education.

"We've hired some marvelous people and we're very pleased with the quality of people we have hired, but recruitment is very competitive," said deputy director of education, Jim Jutras.

"We know that some large school divisions from Alberta are recruiting here and we also know that many of the people in the TEP (Native teacher education) programs come from rural or northern communities and have a commitment to return to those communities after they graduate."

According to Jutras, the Saskatoon board has been quite aggressive in its attempts to recruit new Aboriginal teachers.

This year, for example, the board stepped up its presence at the ITEP, SUNTEP and NORTEP programs and offered new teaching contracts to nine Aboriginal teachers.

The board has also taken steps to increase the awareness of Aboriginal culture in the classroom and it's established a committee to pinpoint new ways of attracting and retaining teachers.

"We've put a great deal of effort into this, but we feel we can still do better," Jutras said.

"We know that the number of Aboriginal students is growing and we think it's very important that they have role models in the classroom."

The Saskatoon Board of Education released an employment equity report containing statistics on the number of Aboriginal teachers in Saskatoon's public schools.

According to the report, 53 of the school division's 1,226 teachers (4.3 per cent) are of Aboriginal ancestry.

That compares with 2,775 Aboriginal students in a total student population of 21,799

(12.7 per cent).