Aboriginal Education is making great strides in SD57

Despite some recently voiced concerns, at least some people feel that Aboriginal Education in School District 57 is making great strides.

“Over the last 5 years, our department has significantly grown, not only in capacity with staff but the ability to provide programs and services,” says Aboriginal Education Manager Shelly Niemi. “We’ve successfully been able to place a site-based Aboriginal Education Worker in every building.That way our students have a support staff right on site and so do our families. We’ve also been able to grow our district office to be able to provide itinerant programs to enrich Aboriginal Education programs and services throughout our District.”

She says that wasn’t the case 3 years ago. In 2009, the department had just 32 staff members – they now have 105.

Niemi says support from the school board has allowed the department to integrate Ab-Ed programs into every school.

“Having that site-based person on site has really allowed us to be able to weave Aboriginal Education into every school within our school districts and to weave it into classrooms and into the core curriculum.”

The district now offers traditional drumming, dancing, canoeing and tanning programs at various schools. There are also annual events like the Indigenous Games and Little Mudder, which the department started this year, as well as multi-day camps featuring instruction from elders from First nations across Canada.

Niemi describes the department’s relationship with the school board as “amazing” and says they’ve been supportive every step of the way.

According to Niemi, School District 57 has the highest number of aboriginal students in the province at 3,580. That means 1/4 of registered students identify as aboriginal.

Niemi’s optimism seems to be well-founded. In the past 5 years, the number of aboriginal students graduating from high school in the district has risen from 39% to 61%.