June 22, 2005

Dancing to a different drummer
Native students' needs discussed by key figures at forum

Great money divide between north and south highlighted

ISABEL TEOTONIO STAFF REPORTER The Toronto Star

Florence Thomas attends school in a restaurant. She's not a budding chef but an eighth-grader from Fort Severn First Nation, the most northerly community in Ontario.

She and about 100 students from her elementary school were forced out last June after it was discovered that the school's walls were infested with mould. But with no money to build a new site or erect portables for the start of the 2004 school year, students were home-schooled for the first few months until space was found in buildings that could accommodate them.

Students from kindergarten to Grade 3 were schooled at a teacher's home; those in Grades 4 through 6 were schooled at a youth centre, and students in Grades 7 and 8 ended up in a restaurant.

As a result of the amount of school missed, those in Florence's grade are being held back a year, which means she will return to the restaurant come fall. That is, if they can find a new teacher to replace the one who quit last week.

Money from Ottawa has been promised toward the construction of portables.

"It's upsetting. I'd like a new school," said the shy 14-year-old yesterday after the plight in her community was raised during a private three-hour brainstorming session at Ryerson University about the urgent need to improve the education of aboriginal children in Ontario.

The round-table discussion, hosted by the university and the Toronto Star, attracted dozens of key figures, including educators, native leaders and government officials, both from the federal and provincial levels.

The need for such an event surfaced after a Star series, titled "Ontario's Forgotten Children," was published in April. Reporter Louise Brown and photographer René Johnston visited some of the 24 communities that make up the Sioux Lookout District First Nations. They chronicled the woeful state of education and highlighted the gap between Canada's native and non-native children.

For years, educators of the province's native schools on reserves, which are paid for by the federal government, have been complaining that there is little help for children with great need. Yesterday's workshop was designed to let key players start developing solutions.

The discussions were kick-started with a speech by Ontario's Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman, who pointed out that, according to Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's report in November 2004, aboriginal children lag so far behind that it will take 28 years to close the gap between the numbers of native versus non-native high school graduates.

Throughout the discussion, which was moderated by Dr. Charles Pascal, executive director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, many of the issues raised in the Star's series surfaced repeatedly, such as the need for more teacher training, rampant staff turnover and more money to fly in experts to assess the needs of students. But the main issue threaded throughout the discussion was the need for greater partnership and more federal dollars from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

"The main issue is lack of equality in education and that means the whole service delivery," said Mary-Beth Minthorn-Biggs, a psychologist who conducted a study of 1,800 children in reserves across the Sioux Lookout District and found 86 per cent were at least two years behind grade level.

She questioned the government's goodwill, along with many others, when she pointed out that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada this year deemed a $1.2 million surplus in education for Ontario, and sent it to Alberta for that province to use.

However, Line Pare of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada pointed to last month's policy retreat for federal ministers and aboriginal leaders as evidence that Ottawa is listening.

A sobering comment made by Nishnawbe-Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic seemed to sum up the sentiments of many: "Aboriginal students are not failing. It's the system that's failing aboriginal students."

The round table was followed by a public discussion hosted by the lieutenant-governor at Queen's Park, an evening event that started with a traditional drum and dance ceremony to celebrate National Aboriginal Day.

"We're not asking for special treatment," Saul Williams of Sioux Lookout District Education Planning Committee told the Star. "We want our children to have the same opportunities as those in the southern part of the province."

He pointed out that in his community of North Caribou First Nation, eight students out of 120 can't speak, but there's no money to fly in speech pathologists.