Sister Sage's Musings

A great thing is happening in Ontario. Children are finally getting all day kindergarten. This is great. Experts all through-out the education field have told us that all day kindergarten greatly increases children’s academic success. The same plan is being followed in half of B.C. classrooms this year, with a full roll out next year. PEI has also put a program together that is running this fall. Three provinces that will run such a lauded program sounds like great progress. Every child will benefit and children in these provinces can look towards a bright future. Well, all except the aboriginals, who are left out of the Ontario program.

Here’s the problem. Aboriginal education falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government and the Ontario Ministry of Education has said that if the Feds don’t provide the investment then these programs can’t be run. So again, aboriginal children are getting shafted. They are being left out of a great program when it’s clear that they are the children who need it the most. Aboriginal reserves are plagued with poverty, high unemployment and oh, this little statistic; 70 percent of on reserve children don’t finish high school. 70 percent. That’s a lot of kids who aren’t graduating and getting, what should be, a basic education. So as it stands, these kids are being left behind. And as the population grows (the aboriginal population in Canada is growing almost seven times faster then any other population and it’s also the younger) we will have more and more adults who don’t have a basic education and made up a larger and larger section of our society. And then, here comes a great program to help these kids get a head start and they are left out. I mean, why aren’t these Ministries collaborating, working together to make sure that there is some sort of egalitarian offering for kids in the Ontario. The situation is just sad. Most of these kids on reserve are defeated before they even start out because of how little the government cares. It’s pathetic.

What kind of consolation prize do aboriginal children get in Ontario from the Education Ministry? “…support such as sharing learning materials, guides and curriculum…” Wow, stuff that should have already been provided for them. Ya know, it seems to me that the issues surround the poverty and despair that hangs over our aboriginal communities could have been solved years ago if our governments did more then just throw money at these people. That’s been the solution so far. “Here, take this money and be quiet.” Well I don’t know if any government bureaucrats are paying attention, but that band-aid solution ain’t working so well. Poverty continues to rise on reserve and kids are still dropping out of school, joining gangs and getting addicted to drugs. All this does is increase the incarceration rate of aboriginals, which is the highest in the country. Governments, provincial, federal AND municiple, need to start putting their heads together and figuring out how to really solve this problem or all we are going to have in the next couple decades are more and more poor aboriginal adults flooding our prisons and stuck on welfare when they should be educated and contributing to our society. I’m pretty sure that’s what they’d prefer. Too bad in this country, nobody cares what they want.

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