Quebec slammed for no plan to improve Indigenous education in nearly 20 years

Quebec's auditor general has released a damning report on its education of Indigenous students, finding the province has fallen short in many areas.

The report, released Wednesday, found few school service centres in the province's public system took any initiative to promote the success of Indigenous students and that the ministry has not created a framework for them to do so. 

According to Statistics Canada, 31.4 per cent of Indigenous people in Quebec aged 24 to 35 don't have a diploma or certificate. That number falls to just 9.3 per cent for non-Indigenous Quebecers.

Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc wrote in her report that the province's Education Ministry has recognized that gap in academic success since 2005, but that it "has still not set any objectives or targets for the success of Indigenous students, something it has done for other groups of students among whom it has noted a gap in achievement."

The achievement gap is also wider in Quebec than it is in the rest of Canada, where 18 per cent of Indigenous people in the same age group do not have a diploma or certificate.

Denis Gros-Louis, the head of the First Nations Education Council, says there are systemic barriers preventing many Indigenous students in the province from achieving their potential. 

"There's a disconnect from the Ministry of Education about our realities, our needs, and the ministry is, as the report says, almost a contributor to increasing the gap among our Indigenous students compared to Quebec public system students," Gros-Louis said in an interview.

He said those barriers happen as soon as young people leave their communities and have to transition into the province's public system, where they may no longer be speaking their language and may face a lack of understanding from peers and school staff about their culture and reality. 

"As soon as all the good work we're doing is fulfilled and our students graduate, then there are systemic barriers especially to get into post-secondary," Gros-Louis said.

Leclerc's report found Quebec lacked a detailed strategy or plan for Indigenous education, services adapted to needs of Indigenous children, training for teachers on Indigenous realities and funding for Indigenous education.

Ian Lafrenière, the provincial minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit, told reporters at the legislature in Quebec City that the issue was a "priority" for his office. 

"It's been taking a large part of my programs. We announce a lot of money in that, but maybe it's going to take time to see the success of it," Lafrenière said, though he did not specify which programs. 

The auditor general noted in the report that there have been numerous reports recommending action for decades, and that successive governments have failed to address the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.