Education Disparities in Ontario and Canada - Assignment Example

Cultural Based submitted Education disparities in Ontario and Canada The education gap between in Ontario and Canada should alarm authorities as education plays an important role in one’s life. It helps one to find a good employment and get a better economic life. The equality in education has been the subject of discussion by the Chiefs Assembly in Quebec, Canada on October 12, 2012 as they saw that “the graduation rates for First Nation is only 36%, a rate that is lower compared to 72% of Canadian population”. As education is an important aspect in the culture of the aborigines, inequalities in their educational achievements with that of Canadian population could be due to their culture, history, and environment. Their customs, beliefs, values, and language are part of what shapes them. On the part of the government and society, the disinterest and long held stereotypes on the aborigines’ status, and racial discrimination are partly to be blamed. The aborigines are part of the growing population of Canada so that education and assimilation to society play an essential position on the country’s economic development. It is sad to say that the aborigines have remained in the status of a second class citizen in a country like Canada whose country positioning is classified as world class. A portrayal of concerns affecting education inequalities is presented in the preceding paragraphs to help us clear our minds on the stereotype issues.(“Portrait of....” 2012). Discriminating activities It is argued that the low turn-out of graduates of the First Nations is triggered by their environment, history and customs. Since early childhood, cultural values instilled to them thru education and practices are generosity, honesty, strength of character and wisdom. It is true that there are learning programs provided to First Nations children but not all could not get into school. They have to be waitlisted before they could get quality early learning and care programs which is quite opposite to non-aborigines. So we could figure out that at an early age, interest of children to school is thwarted by practices and discrimination. Thus, it could be theorized that lack of interest in school stemmed from the inequitable treatment they received. The density of student populations to schools is not conducive to learning so that turnout of graduates in First Nation Schools is lower as compared to Canadian Schools. In 2010, only 515 First Nations elementary and secondary schools are available to about 109,000 First Nations students.(“Portrait of...” 2012) There is an urgent need to increase this number as the youth population of this community is growing fast. Note that as per report, First Nation students in Nova Scotia achieved 100% graduation rates. This only means, given a fair chance, these schools can also achieve a good percentage of turnouts of graduates in high school. Limiting opportunities Same report from Chiefs Assembly on Nations , also stated “61% of First Nation Young Adults (20-24 years old have not completed high school, while only 13% of non-aboriginals population have not”. (“Portrait of...,2012) I suppose they were not able to graduate at an earlier age because although First Nations students have access to education at all stages of their lives, various cultural customs had a heavy influence on their decisions. For instance, education is disrupted by early marriages as the youths are allowed to get married at a very early age. Women marry as soon as they reach the age of puberty, 14 or b15 years old, while boys are allowed marriage as soon as they can show they have the ability to earn livelihood (Roy, Loriene. 2011) . Naturally, the youth become preoccupied with family matters while studies are set aside. This, I believe, explains heavy drop out or delay in graduating high school. It is noted that First Nation students finished high school at a much older age that could be due to other obligations aside from school. Added to that is they have close family ties that when students are relocated to pursue higher studies, they experienced homesickness and the culturally rooted differences that caused them to drop-out. Effects of poverty First Nations people presently live in non-reservation areas. Their sources of income are employment, social assistance and child benefits. However, only 54% of the people in the community are employed. Even at this situation, their culture of generosity is shown by sharing their excess goods to less fortunate. Thriftiness and savings are not part of its culture so that all incomes are disposable and since income is small it is not enough to support a family.(Roy, Loraine. 2011) Due to seasonality of employment, poverty abounds that makes it difficult for them to send their children to school. Food security to them is more important since they consider it is vital to protect the land’s bounty and for that, they are thought of as lazy and unintelligent people. Poverty in First Nation families is more evident as one out of every four children lives in deficiency. Effects of poverty among these people are more pronounced as suicide rates are higher than Canadian youths and more First Nation youths end up in jail rather than finish high school. Deep poverty, domestic violence, depression, isolation, and substance abuse are often times reasons for a youth to commit suicide or go to jail. A probing statistics from the Office of the Correctional Investigator show: Incarceration rate of Aboriginal people in Canada is 10x higher than non-Aboriginal Adult . 23% of all people in prison in Canada are Aboriginal (Indian, Metis, and Inuit) , but they represent only 4% of the overall population. Aboriginal women make up 36% of federally sentenced women in Canada . Officers from this institution are worried this number will continue to grow as problems of the aborigines youth continue to be unaddressed. They consider history, culture, and economic conditions of the aborigines continue to affect their educational attainment, high unemployment, substance abuse, and consequently reasons for incarcerations. Poverty is also seen as one of the reasons why aborigines have an array of health problems that make them disinterested to education. Aboriginal girls are more prone to sexual assault, domestic violence and teenage pregnancies, so now, there are more children in the care of Child Welfare Authorities. (McMahon, T. 2014) Lack of government’s support Education in First Nations has been far out of reach since despite of treaties and agreements, the infrastructures in this community remain in pitiful condition and almost half of its population or 47% need new schools. They have been waiting for a new school to come for many, many years, and the longest wait is 25 years. The condition of its major schools is dangerous to students’ health and safety as they all need major repairs. Some schools lack sanitation facilities, safe drinking water and have issues on foundation structures. Thus, it is a contributory reason to lack of students’ interest in going to school. If the government wants education of aborigines to improve, it has to do an overhaul of its funding legislations to provide more funds to the ailing First Nation schools. Funding for these schools has been done in l987 but did not provide expenditures for technology, sports and recreation, First Nation Language immersion , student data management and libraries. No improvement or additional allocations has been done since then. (“Portrait...” 2012) As a result, funding does not balance with the growth of population, and does not go along with the increasing cost of teachers’ salaries, school supplies and equipment. How then can we expect students to excel if the basic needs for competency, especially when it comes to internet connections and technology, are lacking? Funding has to be increased and more investments in education should be poured in so that these aborigines can catch up technically, with the level of competency of Canadians. Given the chance to education, the aborigines would help solve shortage of labor and fill in the needs for skilled labor in the country. Come 2026, growth of the aborigine population is expected to reach 4.6 percent of the Canadian population that today stands at 34,834,841 (2014 est.). This means there would also be a sizeable labor force growth during this period. If labor force has to become competitive, they have to be educationally prepared. The only way to do it, I believe is to provide the necessary education funding to First Nation schools that is long overdue. Quality education will set aside bias and offer equal opportunity to First Nations and its counterpart in the Canadian population. REFERENCES Office of the Correctional Investigator. “Aboriginal Issues. Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2012-2013, Canada.” 28 June 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 20 14 “Portrait of First Nations and Education”. Education Statistics. Chiefs Assembly on Education. Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2014 Roy, Loreine. “Ojibwa” . Countries and their culture. Everyculture.com 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. Tamsin,McMahon. “Why Fixing First Nations Education Remains so Far Out of Reach”. Aug. 2014. Web. 29 Nov. 2014 Read More