Our Children Our Future Our Vision - People for Education

Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision
ing the system and ensuring the conditions are in place to support student success,” as well as inadequate
compensation to retain qualified staff. The Curve Lake submission expanded on the issue
of retaining qualified staff to raise the concern that the training expenses incurred for new teachers
on reserve are often lost to the community when teachers leave for better paying positions elsewhere.
Curve Lake also commented that “para-professional services, such as speech, psychological
testing, are expensive and difficult to acquire at the local level.”
The OTC specifically expressed the need for increased salaries of Anishinaabemowin teachers and
advocated for “an effective lobbying strategy to address the inadequate funding that presently exists
for Anishinaabemowin initiatives.” The Tribal Council also focused on post-secondary funding
issues and pointed to current student waiting lists as a consequence of the 2% cap and underfunding.
The proposed third party administrative change for post-secondary funding was also highlighted
as an area of concern.
First Nation jurisdiction over education was a principal concern of both ONECA and AIAI. ONECA
“supports the implementation of mechanisms which will implement First Nations jurisdiction to
govern education systems, establish standards which ensure high quality culturally and linguistically
relevant education, and which affirm predictable and necessary funding to enable the operation
of First Nation Education systems.” AIAI asserted that their “member Nations’ position is to
affirm First Nations jurisdiction over their education systems. The federal government must legally
recognize First Nations governance and service delivery systems.” AIAI furthermore relates First
Nations inherent right to self-government directly in support of First Nations control of First Nations
education.
Rights were considered closely related to the education issues outlined in the written submissions.
ONECA stated that “First Nation students have a right to a quality and comparable standard of
education as offered in Canada’s provincial schools systems” and that “First Nation Educational
authorities have the right to establish their own educational systems and institutions.” OPSBA
pointed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Canada is
a signatory, as a “framework for developing any directions undertaken to establish conditions for
equitable education opportunities for First Nation children and youth.” Curve Lake spoke to jurisdiction
and Treaty rights in the statement; “[t]he federal government needs to improve the self-government
of education and acknowledge the treaty right of all First Nation members to better than
adequate elementary and secondary education.”
The majority of submissions also made reference to the importance of language and culture for
First Nation education. The OTC determined that language and culture was one of their highest
priorities this year. Curve Lake highlighted the importance of ensuring local control to incorporate
local content and language dialect in order to maintain and/or revitalize the culture and language
of the community. This is a significant source of enabling students to gain knowledge of who they
are and where they fit into the local and broader community.
Chiefs of Ontario
78