Public forums will focus on aboriginal education
Years after the Vancouver school district considered then rejected starting an aboriginal secondary school, it's contemplating another program with an aboriginal focus--possibly a mini school.
Consultation starts later this month with two public forums--one at Point Grey secondary Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m., and another at Templeton secondary Jan. 25 at 6:30. Jo-Ann Archibald, associate dean for indigenous education in the Faculty of Education at UBC, will facilitate the meetings.
Board chair Patti Bacchus said it's time to reconsider a program with an aboriginal focus without preconceptions of what it would look like. "We know that the mistakes of the past have been people thinking they know what would work for aboriginal students," she said.
A January 1996 school board report entitled, A Feasibility Study for a First Nations Secondary School for the Vancouver School System, concluded establishing a secondary school was not feasible at the time. Finding an academically balanced student body of aboriginal students who'd be interested in or who would choose such a school was considered unlikely. The report noted the aboriginal secondary student population was academically and socio-economically diverse, geographically scattered and too small to recruit the 300 to 350 full-time equivalent aboriginal students necessary. "At that time they were considering a standalone school, even building a new school, that would be an aboriginal school. For various reasons it didn't move forward but we felt it might be worth revisiting the concept of maybe even a school within a school like we do with our mini-school program," Bacchus said.
Mark Aquash, director of the Native Indian Education Program and assistant professor in the education department at UBC, supports the idea. "Providing more choices for aboriginal students, parents and the community can provide greater opportunity for student success," he wrote in an email to the Courier.
Aquash maintains community involvement increases self-determination and allows the Vancouver aboriginal community to participate in the education of youth who are currently not connected to the aboriginal community, which can motivate and create positive outcomes for individual students and their family. "The student begins to make those connections between being an academically successful student as a representative of their family and helping to lift their community from the many negative social challenges that both urban aboriginals and First Nations face every day."
Those who plan to attend a forum can RSVP to mlouie@vsb.bc.ca for planning purposes, but it's not required.
Twitter: @Naoibh
via vancourier.com