Indigenous education cracks cited in scathing report

By Tim Kalinowski on February 16, 2018.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

According to a C.D. Howe Institute report released earlier this week, Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to be left behind by the education system.

The report, entitled “Measuring Student Outcomes: The Case for Identifying Indigenous Students in Canada’s PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) Sample,” states that 92 per cent of non-Indigenous peoples between the ages of 20-24 have their high school certification, and 84 per cent of Métis peoples do, but only 75 per cent of First Nations peoples do among those who live off-reserve.

The statistics compiled for the report show, shockingly, only 48 per cent of First Nations peoples who live on-reserve in that age range have their high school certification. It’s an ongoing problem in need of a solution, says one of the reports co-authors Parisa Mahboubi.

“To graduate high school you need a strong performance in core subjects,” she says. “You need a good performance to build toward post-secondary education. It is not only Indigenous students, any students who are falling behind in terms of core subjects are less likely to be able to graduate from high school, and less likely to attend any post-secondary institutions.”

The report says part of the problem is where provinces either do not seek self-identification from Indigenous peoples on provincial education survey results, or, as in Alberta’s case, they seek this information but do not release results publicly so Indigenous students’ performance can be measured against provincial norms.

The report also criticizes the province of Alberta specifically for including a category for Indigenous results in its Accountability Pillar Survey, but not going further to break that category down into First Nations, Inuit and Métis results.

“Basically, what we establish in our paper is that when you know where you are, you can target where to go,” Mahboubi says. “When you know where there’s a gap, you can try to fix the gap.

“With that kind of information, educators are able to design programs that help Indigenous students to perform better in all areas. B.C. is the absolute best example of the benefits of gathering this type of data, and reporting it in a way educators are able to use the data to improve student performance. They were able to improve graduation rates among First Nations persons.”

The report suggests it might also come down to the style of delivery in the Western education system, which is still leaving Indigenous peoples behind.

“Solutions lie in innovations such as adding culturally relevant context to the curriculum,” it reads, “(and) not in resisting assessment and the publication of (Indigenous identifier) results.”

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