B.C Government announces $2.7M boost for Indigenous education training

Given how few First Nations teachers shape K-12 education in B.C, Melanie Mark says $1.4 million of the total investment will be used towards Indigenous training seats.

“Right now, we know that close to four to six per cent of teachers are Indigenous. Quite frankly, that’s not good enough,” she stresses. “We’ve got to move the dial, and we need to have Indigenous teachers in the front of the classroom, and this is an investment in that opportunity.”

The funding stems from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action No. 62. The call urges integrating Indigenous knowledge and teaching into classrooms.

Upper Nicola Indian Band Chief Harvey McLeod says the announcement will give his band’s members and other First Nations people a chance to achieve equity in the public workforce.

“We know that there’s a lot of value in what we know, and how we’re raised, and we want to share that with the general population about who we are. And yes, we’ve got to do the reading, writing, and arithmetic stuff, but at the same time, there’s a lot there we can offer as people.”

To form to curriculum, Mark says each of the province’s eight teaching universities will receive $50,000, including Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

“Collectively, they’re going to work together so that they’re not overlapping one another in terms of curriculum development,” she explains. “There’s only a few institutions in the province out of the 25 public post secondaries that can actually offer education.”

In addition, NVIT will utilize a $730,000 grant for two Master’s of Education cohorts with the University of British Columbia.

NVIT President Ken Tourand says taking a Master’s in the Nicola Valley is huge for nearby students. By offering the cohort in Merritt, he says the need to move to the Lower Mainland to get high level education is reduced.

“We just finished completing one with UBC, and it finished in December of last year. And we had 28 students start it, with 26 students graduating,” Tourand says.”Of those 26, about 17 of those were NVIT employees that continued their education and got their Master’s degree.”

Tourand says the move will enhance the kind of opportunities offered at NVIT. Last year, the institution offered an entry bursary which covers the first year of tuition for every Grade 12 student from the Princeton or Merritt area.

“This year, we expanded that to include all of the Indigenous First Nations students coming out of First Nations schools across B.C,” he explains. “So any of the band schools, anybody that’s graduating out of that can actually come and get their first year of tuition free.”

Building on progress made with First Nations led facilities like NVIT, Mark says the funding is expected to kick in “as soon as possible.”

by Dylana Milobar

B.C Government announces $2.7M boost for Indigenous education training

Our Community