TRC 5 Years Later: Early Childhood Education

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

 

Early childhood education activities have been linked to “better educational attainment, physical health and gainful employment”.^[1] First Nations children who attend early childhood programs are more likely to meet communication milestones for speaking and understanding speech than their counterparts who did not attend such a program.^[2] These programs focus on methods to overcome the challenges of living in poverty, food insecurity, abuse or neglect, separation from parents, and/or loss of Indigenous knowledge, culture or language.^[3]

 

Unfortunately, in 2011,  78% of Indigenous children aged 0 to 5 years old did not have access to “intensive early childhood programs”,^[4] meaning these children are at an educational and employment disadvantage compared to their counterparts who attend such a program.

 

Call to Action #12 calls upon all levels of government to “develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.”^[5] The Call asks for “stable and adequate funding” to support the development of early childhood programs and, as was also mentioned in our examination of Call #5, to “address some of the deficit in parenting skills that is the legacy of residential schools.”^[6]

 

According to its website, the Government of Canada administers two Indigenous early learning programs:

1. The Aboriginal Head Start On Reserve program (AHSOR), and
2. The Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities program (AHSUNC).^[7]

Since 1995, the AHSUNC has provided funding for structured half-day preschool programs for approximately 4,600-4,800 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children per year.^[8] Three years later, AHSOR was created to target children living in First Nations communities, and reached 14,000 participants in the 2015-2016 reporting year.^[9] Both programs focus on “Indigenous culture and language; education and school readiness; health promotion; nutrition; social support; and parental involvement.”^[10] 

 

As part of these programs, the Government of Canada committed $1.7 billion over 10 years to early learning and childcare for Indigenous children.^[11] The funds will be managed in partnership with First Nations, Inuit, and the Métis Nation.^[12] The government’s vision includes “[...] happy and safe Indigenous children and families, strong cultural identity, and a comprehensive and coordinated system that is anchored in self-determination, centred on children and grounded in culture.”^[13]

 

Indigenous early childhood education programs have a 25-year history in our country. The programs reach an estimated 18,600 to 18,800 Indigenous children per year, however Statistics Canada identified 136,100 Indigenous children ages 0 to 4 years in 2011.^[14] To reiterate the TRC’s final report, this means over three-quarters of Indigenous children are either not receiving or not accessing these early childhood education programs. This is a lost opportunity.

 

The promised additional funds and continued support for these programs meets the TRC’s suggestion for “stable and adequate funding”^[15] and potentially meets the call to “maximize Aboriginal control over Aboriginal education”^[16] by partnering with Indigenous governments. More information about the actual “partnership” between the federal government and Indigenous governments is necessary to understand if Canada is doing more to meet Call #12. Unfortunately, aside from the additional funding, there is no data to determine if Canada is developing or improving access to culturally appropriate child education programs. We award Canada a C for Call #12 given the promise of stable funding.

 

 

Until next time, Team ReconciliAction YEG

 

¹ Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, Evaluation of the Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities Program 2011-2012 to 2015-2016, by Office of Audit and Evaluation (Ottawa: Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, 2017) at 9 [Audit].

² First Nations Information Governance Center, “Early Childhood Education in First Nations Communities”, online: http://fnigc.ca/sites/default/files/ docs/reees_1_lifepath_childhood_0.pdf (poster providing stats regarding early childhood education).

³ Audit, supra note 1 at 9.

⁴ Canada, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Honouring the Truth and Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Winnipeg: The Commission, 2015) at 152 [TRC Report].

⁵Ibid at 152.

⁶Ibid.

⁷Government of Canada, “Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care”, online: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/indigenous-early-learning.html

⁸Audit, supra note 1 at 1.

⁹Ibid; Government of Canada, “Aboriginal Head Start on Reserve”, online: https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1572379399301/1572379483050

¹⁰Ibid.

¹¹Government of Canada, “Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care”, online: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/indigenous-early-learning.html

¹²Ibid.

¹³Ibid.

¹⁴Statistics Canada, “Table 4: Age distribution and median age for selected Aboriginal identity categories, Canada, 2011”, online: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-011-x/2011001/tbl/tbl04-eng.cfm.

¹⁵TRC Report, supra note 2 at 152.

¹⁶Ibid.