Indigenous education pays in long run
Experts and officials are SASKTOON calling it a Saskatchewan success story as the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) offered by the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) has resulted in billions of benefits for the province.
On Wednesday, University of Saskatchewan economics professor Eric Howe outlined the impacts of SUNTEP in his report “SUNTEP An Investment in Saskatchewan’s Prosperity.”
SOCIAL BENEFIT
According to Howe’s research, the effect SUNTEP grads have had on Saskatchewan is immense.
Due to the fact SUNTEP grads are helping future Indigenous students persevere in the their education, he says the social benefit of this influences ranges from $13.6 billion on in the “low scenario” to almost $40 billion in the “high scenario.” He said the social benefit from SUNTEP grads will continue to expand, as graduates teach in the future and deliver more results.
“The purpose of the report is to point out that a brain is an extraordinarily expensive thing to waste,” he said. “Saskatchewan has a population of just over a million people. We are best-off as a province if all of those people are productively employed, those that want to be productively employed are and are well paid.”
“Education increases earnings, it decreases unemployment rates, it increases labour-force participation rates, so it makes us better off.”
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Howe said alongside lengthening a person’s lifespan, an education can also have a positive impact on person’s relationships with their spouse and cause them more civically engaged, the monetary effects are also notable.
For example, a Metis woman who has not completed Grade 12 will earn about $1.5 million less than a Metis woman who completes a bachelor’s degree or higher. This holds true for a First Nation woman as well, where they will earn roughly $1.4 million less than if they had obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher.
CROSS-CULTURAL CONNECTIONS
President of the Metis NationSaskatchewan Glen McCallum said SUNTEP has had major effects across the province and the program needs to be supported, saying “it’s crucial” all levels of government recognize the benefits of SUNTEP outlined in Wednesday’s report.
“The cross-cultural partnerships are being developed, crosscultural understanding needs to play a role and the cross-cultural relationships have to be there in order for all us to succeed,” he said.
McCallum explained the program itself has benefited both the individuals who graduated and the communities they serve as teachers and role models.
“They’ve made a lot of difference in their lives and in other families’ lives,” he told the crowd at Wednesday’s report presentation.
He said the MN—S is working to educate members of the Metis community about the benefits of completing their education, and how to do so at GDI, noting SUNTEP graduates are helping educate those outside the Indigenous community on Metis traditions and culture.
“There’s a lot of GDI graduates that are teaching and helping out our communities and that’s great to see,” he said.
While McCallum said it’s important to recognize the work that’s already occurred to support Indigenous peoples and communities through programs like SUNTEP, there’s more work to be done in building crosscultural relationships between government, post-secondary institutions, school boards and Saskatchewan’s Indigenous institutions and governments.
“In order for us to succeed, to be well off in our province and in our country, we have to work together,” he said.
STUDENTS HIGHLY SOUGHT
Michelle Prytula, dean of the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Education, said its partnership with GDI is an important one for the faculty, and the university on a whole, as together they work to deliver a bachelor of education that is “steeped in language, culture, tradition (and the) history of the Metis people.”
“These graduates of the program go on to be educators in Saskatchewan throughout all of our schools,” she said.
Adding later: “The SUNTEP graduates are actually some of the — if not the most — soughtafter graduates from the bachelor of education program at the U of S.”
Prytula, who said the university community is better informed on Metis culture as a result of the GDI partnership, also noted employment rates for SUNTEP grads are high, with many students walking across the stage at convocation with teaching contracts already in hand.
She said students are in that position “because of the brilliant people that surround them.”
While her speech at Wednesday’s presentation provided only a “sliver” of the GDI-U of S partnership, she said when SUNTEP grads leave the program, they’re well-positioned to “advance the mission of Metis education in the comm unities which are so fortunate to have hired them.”