VG report: Lack of support for indigenous students

Photo: Catherine Legault archives Le Devoir Some 3,100 indigenous students attend a public school served by French or English school service centers.

Jessica Nadeau

Published at 14:16 Updated at 17:22

• Québec

“Nearly 20 years after noting a gap in success among Indigenous students, the Ministry of Education is still implementing few actions to promote their success,” notes Auditor General (AG) Guylaine Leclerc in her latest report published Wednesday.

Lack of support for young people, particularly for learning French, lack of money, lack of training for staff and poor evaluations of students who make the transition between a school in their community and the Quebec school system: the auditor highlights numerous shortcomings that hamper the academic success of young Aboriginal people who are in the Quebec public system.

Some 3,100 Indigenous students attend a public school served by French or English school service centres. For these young people, who leave their community school to join a school in the Quebec school system, the transition can be difficult, both culturally and linguistically, since most have a mother tongue other than French. However, they do not “receive sufficient support or support adapted to their needs during their transition,” says Ms. Leclerc.

For example, she indicates that only a few schools have a liaison officer to facilitate the bond of trust and academic engagement, a measure that has nevertheless been identified as being beneficial.

Lack of support in French

In schools in Quebec school service centres, Indigenous students also do not receive enough help in French, even though it is often their second or third language. “Difficulties with mastering French complicate the academic path of Indigenous students, but few of them have access to language support services in the schools of the audited French-language educational organizations,” writes the Auditor General.

This can have a significant impact on the academic success of young people. She gives the example of a student who failed his fourth year of elementary school because his French skills were poorly assessed. Despite the failures that accumulated during his integration year, “this student will have benefited from only 12 hours of remedial teaching in total,” indicates the Auditor General.

She also notes that the French-language support services offered to Indigenous students are “less intensive” than those offered to students from immigrant backgrounds and that the amounts allocated by the ministry are “tiny” for non-French-speaking students who are not from immigrant backgrounds.

For example, she indicates that the amounts allocated by the ministry for language support services amount to $450 per year for an Indigenous student, compared to $6,813 for those from immigrant backgrounds upon their arrival in the network.

She also deplores the lack of training for school staff to “understand the causes of certain behaviours and acquire the tools that would allow them to better support Indigenous students in their academic journey.”

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Quebec is doing poorly in Canada

Not only does the department devote little effort to supporting young Aboriginal people in the public school system, but “it still has not set any objectives or targets for the success of Aboriginal students, something it has done for other groups of students for whom it has noted a gap in achievement,” adds auditor Guylaine Leclerc.

It also does not have “indicators to track progress in terms of school perseverance and the results of Aboriginal students,” as is the case for other groups of students with achievement gaps.

And this is despite various recommendations from the National Table on the Educational Success of Indigenous Students that have remained “dead letters.”

“As a result, a significant achievement gap remains and little improvement can be observed compared to all students and other groups of students with achievement gaps,” says Ms. Leclerc.

The analysis of the results of three cohorts of Indigenous students who began their school career between 2014 and 2017 shows that nearly 40% of them left school without obtaining a diploma or qualification, she adds.

Across Quebec, the number of Indigenous people aged 25 to 34 without a diploma fell from 39% to 31.4% between 2006 and 2021. This makes Quebec the worst Canadian province in terms of graduation of young Indigenous people. “Quebec is also the province that has seen the least improvement, with an average improvement of 19% compared to 34% in the other provinces,” adds the Auditor General.

Recommendations and reactions

The Auditor General proposes nine recommendations, including the development of a “strategy to improve the educational success of Aboriginal students,” the establishment of “precise and measurable” indicators to guide the actions of the school network and the evaluation of existing funding arrangements.

In its comments, published in the Auditor General's report, the Ministry of Education (MEQ) indicates that it “notes with great interest” this performance audit and “adheres to the recommendations issued”.

“The MEQ considers that it has implemented actions in favor of Indigenous students,” we can read in the ministry's comments. Although adjustments are necessary, these measures aim to obtain positive repercussions in the school network. The ministerial consultations on the educational success of Indigenous students, which took place in spring 2023, allowed the MEQ and its partners to develop a common long-term vision.”

In Quebec City, the Minister responsible for Relations with First Nations and Inuit, Ian Lafrenière, indicated that he would “take good note of the report and read it,” but maintained that he had recently made “major changes in education” for Aboriginal people, including the creation of Aboriginal school environments in certain cities.

When asked more specifically about the significant difference in the amounts allocated to support for French for Aboriginal students and those from immigrant backgrounds, the Minister did not have all the information in hand. “I will take good note of it and I will go see what this difference is and how we can do this.”

With François Carabin and Dave Noël