Education
The Education Department consists of three full time staff in the Office, the Staff at Nbisiing Secondary School and our bus drivers. Our approximately 200 elementary and secondary school children attend school off reserve for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8. At the Secondary level we have approximately 50% of our students attending Nbisiing Secondary School (Band operated School) and the other 50% attend the provincial schools in the area. We currently fund about 50 full time post secondary students and 30 part time secondary students. The Education Department sponsors the Homework Assistance Club for Kids three afternoons a week during the school year. Over the past three years we have been fortunate to be able to partner our HACK program with the Biidahban Community Service Learning Program from Nipissing University. Our students benefit from the additional 1:1 help from the University students, many studying in the Faculty of Education. At the same time these University students benefit from experiencing our First Nation community, at the grassroots level! We have an Education Committee that meets on a monthly basis, chaired by the Band Councilor holding the Education portfolio.
Important To Know
The deadline for Full-Time Post Secondary Funding is May 25th each year.
Parents/Guardians of children beginning Junior Kindergarten are urged to have vision, hearing and speech/language screening done in the spring prior to the September school start date. If you would like a checklist of important skills expected of 3 and 4 year olds go to www.ndds.ca for the Nipissing District Developmental Screen.
The Education Department does not provide bus transportation to all schools. Please check with the Education Office before registering or transferring your child for school.
The Nipissing First Nation Education Department is responsible for the administration of the Education budget for our elementary, secondary and post secondary students. In addition we provide the school bus transportation to most of the Sturgeon Falls and North Bay schools that our children attend. We have ‘tuition agreements’ with the four local School Boards, on behalf of our elementary and secondary students who attend school in the provincial system. We also have ‘reverse tuition agreements’ with the same Boards for secondary students who live off the First Nation Territory but choose to attend our Band operated Secondary School. “Reverse tuition agreements’ at the secondary school level are very new in the province of Ontario. A change to the Education Act in 2008 now enables First Nations secondary schools to charge tuition back to the Ministry of Education for students who meet the criteria (living off reserve but attending high school on reserve). We are responsible for providing the tuition fees to the Boards and we also cover a significant amount of the costs associated with accommodations for our special needs students.
Working in the Education Department is exciting, challenging and multi-faceted. While much of our role is ‘administrative’ (finances, reports, proposals etc.) we have daily contact with parents, students, teachers and various school board personnel (teachers, Principals, School Board officials). We have regular contact with post secondary institutions where our students are enrolled. Even school transportation comes with many details to coordinate and needs to meet!
We participate in various committees at the First Nation community level, the Board level – First Nation Advisory Committee, Special Education Advisory Committee and the post secondary level (Nipissing University Aboriginal Council on Education, Canadore College Aboriginal Council on Education). On occasion we participate in sessions with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Assembly of First Nations, Chiefs of Ontario and the Union of Ontario Indians, to name but a few of the “stakeholders” in Education. While it is not possible to attend all meetings that we are asked to participate in, it is important to have a voice at critical times, and we do our best to do so. We have a responsibility to look out for the educational interests of the First Nation whenever and wherever we can, what’s working and what’s not!
Future plans: Nipissing First Nation has been participating in the Education Restoration of Jurisdiction process for some time now, with the goal of creating an Anishinabek Education System. The vision statement reads as follows: We, the Anishinabek, are responsible to education our children so that in the generations to follow there will always be Anishinaabe. Our Education System will strive to ensure a quality of life based on the highest standards of Anishinaabe intellectual, holistic knowledge that supports the preservation and on-going development of the Anishinaabe. Anishinaabe Pane.
The implications for the future are exciting! This is a call to action, a challenge to “be the change” for future generations. We do have shorter term goals which include the revision and renewal of tuition agreements and on-going course development at Nbisiing Secondary School. We are constantly seeking to ‘improve’ how we operate in all areas of the Department. We are in need of a permanent Education Office with adequate space and facilities to carry out the responsibilities we are mandated with. Additional staffing that would allow us to be more actively involved in providing support, guidance and programming for all of our learners is certainly a goal of the Department. This will happen as funding levels allow. In the meantime we continue to strive to promote Educational achievement for Nipissing First Nation.
