Peggy Revell
A change to funding ratios is raising concerns over the ability of the Rainy River District School Board to offer sufficient native language and native studies courses at the high school level.
The issue arose during the board’s June 7 meeting when a report from the Aboriginal Education Advisory Committee informed trustees the province has changed the ratio of “resident students” from 8:1 to 12:1 for the province to fund course sections.
“[This] is going to impact our programming significantly,” warned Aboriginal Education leader Brent Tookenay.
He noted Northern Ontario boards are “at a disadvantage right off the start” as most First Nations’ students are bused in from their communities—so are not counted as resident students or as a part of the ratio.
“The ministry wants us to promote native studies and native language courses within our schools—to help aboriginal students identify and be able to take curriculum that’s relevant to who they are—and yet they aren’t going to fund it for them,” Tookenay said.
“To me, the logic around that is built around southern Ontario, where they’re benefitting the most,” he added.
Tookenay said there are boards in southern Ontario that are able to offer 33 sections of native studies, which also means they are receiving a “significant amount” of extra funding.
“From a First Nations’ perspective and the communities, native language is a key course that we need to offer in our high schools,” he stressed.
“And we need to have the connections of a fluent speaker delivering these courses to our students.
“If that goes by the wayside, it’s going to be a hard thing to get back,” Tookenay reasoned.
“And so we want to make sure that we raise awareness. That this is something that’s really important.”
Tookenay said there are concerns over this ratio change with other boards in Northern Ontario, as well.
The local board currently is working to gain support from the other boards in the region which will be affected by this change, noted Tookenay, while also working to inform the Ministry of Education about its concerns over the changes.
