Report card gives Aboriginal education another failing grade

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The Saskatchewan Aboriginal population is still far less educated and still less inclined to stay in school than non-Native students, according to the Department of Education's Indicators 99 report, released in January.

The report concluded that Saskatchewan's public confidence in the K- to-12 education system remained consistently strong. But it points out the challenges facing the province's Aboriginal population are significant.

Some of the highlights:

* In the Aboriginal community, 58.5 per cent of the adult population doesn't have a high school diploma and only 3.9 per cent have a university degree. By comparison, 41.7 per cent of the adult non-Aboriginal population don't have a high school diploma and 10.4 per cent have a university degree;

* Of Saskatchewan's Aboriginal population, the survey indicates that 50 per cent of Grade 9 students "left" classes in which they were registered. By comparison, only 11 per cent of non-Aboriginal students left a class;

* There are substantial gaps in educational attainment between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults in the province, and between the Saskatchewan Aboriginal and the Canadian Aboriginal population.

Darryl Hunter, director of assessment and evaluation for the Department of Education, said the challenges of improving education for Aboriginal students must also be met by the society at large as well as the Aboriginal community.

"It's a very big and long-term quest," said Hunter. "We're dealing with a province larger in size than France, a million people, 800 schools, 190,000 students. It's by far larger than any organization or company in the province."

The province has made significant progress in adding to the Aboriginal curriculum and increasing the number of Aboriginal teachers in school boards with equity programs, said Hunter. In 1989, there were 440 students for each Aboriginal student. In 1998, there were 258 students for each Aboriginal student.

Hunter cautions that some of the figures in the report may be misleading. While the percentage of Aboriginal students who "left" school is high, many of those students re-enroll in other school boards or in other provinces and don't show up in the statistics.

The survey found that family moving (17 per cent) was the biggest reason for Grade 9 Aboriginal students leaving, followed by changes in the family situation (13 per cent) and behavioral problems (12 per cent).

Morley Watson, vice-chief of the Saskatchewan Federation of Indians (FSIN), said when the provincial government dictates to Aboriginal people it never works.

"We have to look at a major overhaul of the education system. More importantly, there has to be (more) First Nation educators who would be beneficial to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginals in Saskatchewan.

"As far as I'm concerned the province's help has been very, very marginal. They have the attitude of other governments and become very dominant and dictatorial. Although First Nations people have made significant strides and improvements, as long as we limit our participation to being students, it's not going to reach its full potential."

But, increasing First Nations' control of on-reserve education is reflected in enrollment trends, according to the survey. In 1989-99 about 77 per cent of K-to-12 students living on-reserve went to First Nation-controlled schools, 23 per cent went to provincial schools, and none went to federal schools.

Watson said that the FSIN is "very happy" that a lot of First Nations have chosen to build their own schools where they can control the culture, language and curriculum.

"The greater challenge is to make those schools operate like any other successful school and make sure the needs of the students are met properly," he said.

The chronic problems between Aboriginal students and the education system seem to not be caused by lack of funding. By national and international standards, Saskatchewan is funding its education system fairly well, according to the Indicatos 99 report.

Ontario was the only province in Canada that devoted a higher percentage of its provincial budget to education than Saskatchewan. In fact, Saskatchewan spent more on its K-to-12 budget than most G-7 countries like Germany or Japan.