Community Engagement on INAC Education Initiative Could Result in Far-Reaching Changes
What if Education Authorities are formed that will be independent of Chief and Council and be responsible for providing services that PAGC Education currently provides?
By Ed Mirasty
PAGC Director of Education
The Prince Albert Grand Council, PBCN and LLRIB have begun the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) “Education Transformation Initiative” by implementing community consultation from January until March 31st, 2017. Each PAGC First Nation should be completing their dialogue between parents, elders, students and teachers to determine “what are your priorities in education?”
The three (above-named) PAGC applicants had received monies starting in December 2016 to initiate community-hall type meetings with parents, elders, students and teachers on what issues/concerns they may have in regards to K-12 and post-secondary education. This engagement process has the capacity to define how First Nations communities want their schools to be run for the next twenty-five years. INAC has proposed, as part of the engagement process, the option to have each First Nations consider moving towards becoming their own Education Authority (EA), joining with the Province, or re-aligning existing second-level services. (See below for a definition of second-level services.)
Requirements
The requirements for Education Authorities according to INAC Regina’s last few correspondences is First Nations must have a minimum of 1,000 students and be partnered with at least three other First Nations bands. Adjacent to this INAC initiative, the First Nations community can apply for what INAC calls the “Structured Readiness Proposal” to determine their governance structure. If successful, that new Education Authority would have their own separate funding agreement apart from the current Chief and Council and would handle their own funds, develop their own policies and establish their own governance structures.
There will be some challenges in becoming an Education Authority if the First Nations decide to move their education programs completely away from PAGC. For instance, the new EA would have to hire and/or develop their own second-level services, which would include recruiting their own Education Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Teacher Services, etc. Many of these specialists are currently contracted through the PAGC who don’t all live in Prince Albert, but may commute from their own homes in Saskatoon.
Services
The PAGC Special Education Department, otherwise called the Regional Management Organization (RMO) is currently able to maintain economies of scale, that is cost efficient, through established relationships with many hard-to-recruit assessment professionals like educational psychologists, speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists. Typically, assessments are required to ensure that students with cognitive and behavior needs are able to qualify for funding. This funding allows schools to hire teacher assistants, obtain special education resources and provide training.
Another challenge for Education Authorities to consider is where will they obtain their teacher services? If a new entity were to contract their own second-level services from a provincial school board (i.e. – IT personnel, teacher services, accrediting secondary courses, etc), they would have to pay a minimum of $750/day per consultant. PAGC Education currently provides workshops, in-services, IT support, teacher evaluations and other services at minimal costs for each community. Teacher Services is currently funded under the communities’ nominal roll which takes 2.5% from each school (minus La Ronge).
Furthermore, PAGC education staff better understand the schools, teachers and administrators that put provincial school boards at a disadvantage. Since PAGC education has been around for almost 37 years, we possess the corporate and educational history of PAGC member First Nations’ schools. This working relationship evolved around years of discussions amongst the Directors/Coordinators table since the mid-1970s.
As First Nations hold their Community Dialogue discussions regarding the INAC initiative, the option to move away from PAGC and become their own Education Authority is an option. Starting April 1, 2017, the nation-to-nation dialogue will begin between the federal government, chiefs and education leaders. The Community Dialogue Reports from each community will guide further discussions on Local Control of First Nations Education. Consequently, it will be important for all community members to have their voices heard in these community consultations that are set to end on March 31.
PAGC Education
Although PAGC Education will continue to support each First Nations’ decision, it must be reminded to all PAGC members that resources, professional development and teacher services that our department currently provides, is unparalleled to any school division across the province. If Education Authorities decide to recruit and hire their own staffing to run their own operations, it will be a costly venture worthy of serious reflection.
In closing, there has never been a more crucial time in our PAGC history to set the educational discourse for our students. Developing and embracing what we currently have at the PAGC education level while maintaining local control of First Nations Education is also an option. If we are to maintain and build upon a second-level service that took years to develop, then that also needs to be said at these discussion tables. The Treaty Right to Education has always been and will continue to be the driving force for PAGC and its second-level services department.