Lots going on at Alberta Education with a strong focus on the future.  I will be writing about several projects like "Setting the Direction for Special Education" and "Inspiring Education: a Dialogue with Albertans" in later blogs.  I would encourage interested people, particularly students, to go to www.speakout.alberta.ca. and participate in discussions by students on what is important to them about education.  But today I want to focus on a topic that is probably one of the most important subjects with immediate as well as intermediate and long term action required - First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) education. 

Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 24 & 25) the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, made up of all Ministers of Education and Advanced Education from all provinces and territories, met with national Aboriginal leaders and regional Aboriginal leaders for "Strengthening Aboriginal Success: Moving Toward Learn Canada 2020".  The purpose is to focus CMEC and its members on closing the achievement gap between First Nation, Metis and Inuit learners and other Canadian learners.

This is a most important engagement.  The tragedy of lost human potential, perpetuated poverty, and low socioeconomic status cannot be ignored or allowed to continue.  The aboriginal population is the fastest growing segment of our society.  The current situation is bad enough.  With a growing student population it will only get worse if effective action does not start today.

We obviously need to start with good data  - and in Alberta we have been working on that aspect and expect to have good data for decision-making and accountability very quickly.  Even without it we know that on any of a great number of measures - including high school completion, the drop out rate, success in school, and attendance - Aboriginal students are generally much worse off than non-Aboriginal students. 

Today's conference was intended to raise the level of awareness and begin a strong partnership between provincial governments and Aboriginal leaders to make success a high priority - to do nothing less than to engage in common cause to identify barriers to success and overcome them.

We must get over our jurisdictional issues (while not letting the federal government off the hook on their responsibility in the area) and put the children first.  We cannot afford not to do it.  Over the past three years, our society has realized like never before how much we need full participation by Aboriginal people - we needed them.  With up to 80 per cent unemployment in some areas while the province was at virtual full employment, the difference was stark.  Now that we are getting a bit of a breather in the economy, we cannot slack off.  We need to be ready for the upswing with all members of our community equipped for success.

To be fair - this is not the beginning of trying to meet the challenge.  Alberta has an Aboriginal Education Framework - as do other provinces.  There have been many actions taken.  Alberta funds school boards with an extra $1093 per self-identified Aboriginal student, over and above the regular grants.  Curriculum has been developed in Cree language and Aboriginal culture.  Cycle three of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) saw 10 projects aimed at improvement in Aboriginal student outcomes.  We have an Aboriginal Education group within the Department of Education and many School Boards have dedicated resources. 

But it is not yet doing the job.  We need to asses what we are doing and take the learnings from this historic partnership to build local active working partnerships in Alberta.  Jurisdiction has been both an excuse and a hiding place - for all parties.  Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations addressed the meeting - and predictably started by calling on the federal government for money. And while it might be easy to react negatively to yet another call for money, especially when all governments have to be particularly cautious with dollars, (of course CMEC itself constantly calls on the feds for dollars for post-secondary), it is very difficult for First Nations to pay wages to teachers at par with neighbouring jurisdictions when federal student grants are significantly lower than grants for provincially funded students in the same neighbourhood.

Our partnership with First Nations must get to the table with the federal government immediately to work out roles, responsibilities and funding, with appropriate accountabilities (and to their credit - Chuck Strahl, the federal INAC minister sent a video to the conference outlining their existing programs and desire to work on agreements in the same vein as their recent New Brunswick agreeement).     

The reality is there is no easy answer.  Even with the best schools, the best teachers, all the technology and resources, it is still an uphill battle without families and communities valuing education.  The most important indicator of student success is a family that values education.  The next is a caring and connected adult in a child's life.  To be successful children must be ready to learn - hard to do if you go to school hungry, come out of a home with family violence, or don't have the parental support.  That is not an Aboriginal issue, that is an issue for many mired in poverty.  Providing the supports that children and schools need to overcome family, community and societal issues that children bring to school will be another blog, but that is clearly a part of the Aboriginal education issue as well.

The conference involved much informed discussion by passionate and engaged people.  We can identify the barriers to success.  We can identify many potential solutions and actions.  We need to work on the resourcing.  But clearly the most important piece of work is that which will come out of this conference and translate to action back home.  We are here.  We are committed to working together in partnership, at the table as equal partners dedicated to putting our children first.  This is no longer about pointing to someone else.  This is about looking at ourselves and saying what can we do, with our partners to provide leadership to our communities, to our families to raise the importance of the value of education, to ensure our children are ready to learn and motivated to do so, and that each child has the opportunity, with the right facilities, the right technology, the right teachers, and the right curriculum to be successful.  This is true for all our children - but no where is the need more acute than for children with First Nation, Metis and Inuit heritage.