Indigenous Education

Education is a federally funded responsibility in northern and remote Indigenous reserves, whereas it is a provincial responsibility across Canada. This has created an inequitable and complicated two-tier education system in which Indigenous children continue to be left behind mainly due to accessibility. 

According to the Assembly of First Nations—First Nations Education Infrastructure Capital Needs Assessment, 2020, there are 526 First Nations schools across Canada, and $2.14 billion is required for new school construction and additions. Of these, 28% (or 140) are overcrowded. Further, 46 of the 526 First Nations schools required immediate replacement based on their age or poor condition.

The good news is that the government has made a significant attempt to invest in Indigenous education and infrastructure in the last ten years, and certainly, it has increased within the last three years. However, this investment is making up for decades of inadequate funding, and it remains a fact that many other social determinants affecting Indigenous education outcomes must also be addressed and acted upon.

Some of these social determinants include:

Yet, as the article Indigenous education can and must be fixed admits, government money will not solve the whole issue, and that there must be a ‘reinvention’ of Indigenous education by Indigenous communities themselves to move toward self-determination. Indigenous education must be rooted in culture and language programs in order for this to happen, and there are many emerging programs across Canada that are doing so.

True North Aid commits to supporting Indigenous education through our Education Stone of Support. Learn more here.

The Indian Act’s main purpose was to displace Indigenous people onto reserves or into residential schools. Notably, while the Indian Act granted the education of First Nations groups a federal responsibility, governance concerning Indigenous education was not included. This omission proves that it was never the intention of the government to ensure educational parity between non-Indigenous and Indigenous children.

Residential schools were underfunded, understaffed, and often overcrowded. The education Indigenous children did receive was often not taught beyond grade three due to the minimal or non-existent teaching qualifications of the religious order, whose main focus was religious instruction. Most of the day was spent by students completing the physical and domestic chores to keep the schools running at a minimal cost to the government.

The residential school system began with a modest budget of $44,000 a year in 1883.

This money, however, mostly came from cuts to government spending on other Indigenous community needs. Thus, the system’s funding was marked by the reluctance of the government to invest in the program. Not long after the residential school system emerged, critics began to denounce its economic utility, its care for student health, its limited academic success,

and its failure to create a cadre of young “assimilated Indians.”

Facing History & Ourselves, “Historical Background: The Indian Act and the Indian Residential Schools”, 2019.

Residential school survivors recall how malnutrition, unsanitary conditions and poor medical care led to outbreaks of diseases, including tuberculosis and flu epidemics. Many also recall the heartbreaking experiences of abuse that they experienced or witnessed.

The misleading intention of the federal government to assimilate Indigenous children through a Eurocentric educational model began to prove inadequate. This was substantiated by the fact many residential schools were in disrepair, and an investment in restoring the conditions of the buildings was not a priority of the government. Thus, the commitment to phase out residential schools began in the 1940s and was slow, with the last residential school closing 58 years later in 1998.