Making a difference
Children go to school on Saturday to participate in cultural learning
School is the last place you expect to find children on a warm Saturday in late June but African Nova Scotian children in Grade Primary to Grade 5 were enthusiastically running through the halls of Harbourside Elementary, waiting for the Iwa Pele conference to begin.
Lynn Crawford, co-ordinator of race relations, cross-cultural and human rights for the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board, was pleased to see them.
“It is impressive,” she said. “We hoped to have it a little earlier in the school year but due to unforeseen circumstances we’re having it now and the students are just as excited. Originally the staff were wondering if they would come and they were concerned they would not come because it is a Saturday and not a school day but the participation rate/registration rate is high. We’re very pleased.”
Those who attended the daylong event got to see African drumming and to meet with elders in the community as well as guests from the African Canadian Services Division.
“Iwa Pele is strength and good character in Swahili and so we want to encourage the students to be involved in cultural activities for the day,” said Crawford. “It’s being held because it’s important for us to install into the students pride in who they are.”
Crawford says the children use the services of student support worker, part of program inspired by the Black Learners Advisory Committee report from 1994, which recommended having workers help students become more successful in the educational system. Presently there are five student support workers, including one who works with First Nations students. Each has a workload of about 75 students each and they do such things as checking on student attendance, meeting with students and teachers and even checking on their assignments.
“The student support workers monitor students success and they’re sort of a liaison between the school and the community and the family to help support the students being successful.”
Crawford says these workers are making a substantial difference in the lives of these children.
“The program has now been in effect for 18 years and we’re seeing the results,” said Crawford. “Over the past few years, we’ve had more graduates from the African-Nova Scotia community than we’ve had from the past and the students going through our system now have had the experience of a student support worker from primary right up through the education system.
“It’s making a difference.”