Indigenous students face huge obstacles, education forum hears

Indigenous kids in reserve schools are facing crowded classrooms, limited resources and a lack of expertise to preserve language and culture, education advocates said Wednesday at a national forum.

More than 2,000 delegates are gathered in Calgary this week for the First Nation Directors of Education National Forum discussing ways to improve education for indigenous youth.

Learning leaders from coast to coast, along with those from the Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary, agreed that much should be done to support on-reserve schooling and better educate indigenous students in their language and culture, while providing them with the skills needed for the real world.

“There is a lot of inequality, a lot of gaps. There’s an imbalance on reserves, not enough books, computers, even teachers,” said Perry Bellegarde, National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations.

“We’re faced with a suicide epidemic because our young people are missing out on hope and inspiration. We need to find the balance, learn math, science, literacy, but also learn language and culture.”

Bobby Cameron, AFN’s Regional Chief for Saskatchewan and education portfolio holder for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said he sees schools with as many as 50 to 60 kids in one classroom, squeezing together as many as three to four grade levels.

Nadine Crowchild, former education support leader and now executive assistant to newly elected Tsuut’ina Chief Lee Crowchild, said while the two schools on the Tsuut’ina reserve try to limit class sizes to about 25, the schools are bursting at the seams, with classes taking place in the gym and library.

“We need a new school, we need more resources.”

Because of overcrowding at Chiila School, the reserve’s only elementary, officials have cut back on the grade levels to only include kindergarten to Grade 4. The Tsuut’ina Junior Senior High School now combines Grades 5 to 12 in just one building.

With limited funding being a challenge, Crowchild suggested the “nominal roles” that measure student populations to determine federal per capita funding should be taken more than once a year.

“On a reserve like ours that’s so close to the city, kids are coming and going all the time, so you don’t have an accurate count of kids.”

Bellegarde estimated per capita federal funding for students on reserves is only half of what is provided by the province to students off the reserve.

And while students are challenged, teachers need more support, too, Crowchild said. While most on-reserve teachers are indigenous, many aren’t well versed enough to properly teach indigenous history, language and culture.

“We need to ensure our teachers are given that proper training at the post-secondary level.”