Students and staff at the Sturgeon Lake Central School shake hands with each other and government officials at the funding announcement. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
Sturgeon Lake Central School was the site of a Thursday funding announcement where the government of Canada dedicated $3 million over three years to expand a cultural education program called “Follow Their Voices.”
The money will be divvied out to 11 schools in the province in order to train around 440 teachers in the Saskatchewan-made initiative that aims to help teachers build stronger relationships with their students. In total, 27 schools will be participating in the program this fall.
Because First Nations kids are in both urban and reserve schools, the new schools to get involved with the federal funding reflect that. The schools are in: Ile-a-la-Crosse, La Loche, North Battleford, Canoe Lake, Cowessess, Cote, La Ronge, Prince Albert, Duck Lake, and Keeseekoose.
The province is already funding $1.55 million towards Follow Their Voices, and Bob Maguire with Indigenous and Northern Affairs said this was chance to parallel the province’s investment.
“This is an opportunity for us to make sure that kids are getting comparable educations and quality educations,” said Maguire.
Mason Naytowhow speaks at the funding announcement. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
Sturgeon Lake’s school has already put the Follow Your Voices into place, and graduating student Mason Naytowhow said it’s changed his school experience significantly. Now, he said, students are able to pray in Cree in the morning, smudge at school, receive visits from Elders, and see teachers making themselves more available to talk: all of which brings a sense of community into the school.
“A lot of students out here, sometimes we have our own problems and stuff outside of school and behind closed doors. And a lot of can’t really talk about it,” he said.
“But with Elders and more counsellors in school, students have a better chance to talk about things … so it helps students to push forward and to get through things.”
He said more students are showing up to class and the school’s graduation of 16 students this year is projected to hit 27 students next year.
Education Minister Don Morgan said the program is a part of the province’s commitment to improve First Nations and Metis graduation rates.
“The purpose of it is to have First Nations students become engaged, making sure that they attend, focus on getting credits and focus on them graduating. Those are sort of key things that we need to do out of this,” he said.
The money will go towards facilitators within the system who are able to train teachers, but does not bring new positions to participating schools. Recently, Saskatoon’s Catholic school division cut 12 dedicated Aboriginal student retention workers as a result of provincial budget shortfalls.