Minister of Education Mike Bernier says the province will push to make sure First Nations students graduate high school with a dogwood diploma.
Bernier made the announcement Friday on Squamish Nation lands in North Vancouver, after being greeted by a traditional welcoming song.
Bernier said in the past decade, too many aboriginal kids have been receiving evergreen certificates – certificates of completion that don’t count as high school graduation – instead of regular diplomas.
Evergreen certificates were originally introduced 10 years ago in B.C. as a way for special needs students – such as those with profound autism – to be recognized with their peers for completing school.
But in recent years, both the auditor general and aboriginal leaders have pointed to a disproportionate use of evergreen certificates for aboriginal students.
“How many of them were truly for special needs? How many of them were just because they didn’t get the extra push they needed to get a dogwood?” said Bernier.
According to ministry statistics, about four per cent of aboriginal Grade 12 students receive evergreen certificates compared to about one per cent of non-aboriginal Grade 12 students.
That’s resulted in both a lower graduation rate among First Nations students and aboriginal students facing limitations in pursuing post-secondary training and education, said Tyrone McNeil, president of the First Nations Education Steering Committee.
Graduation rates for aboriginal students in the province are about 63 per cent compared to 84 per cent for the school population as a whole. Graduation rates in North Vancouver are similar, with 59 per cent of First Nations students graduating compared to 83 per cent of students overall.
Bernier said he’s heard too many stories of First Nations students being encouraged to take easier subjects and being told they’ll still get an evergreen certificate. Often families haven’t understood that means their child won’t formally graduate high school, he said.
Bernier said from now on, evergreen certificates will only be available to students with recognized special needs and individual education plans.
McNeil called the use of evergreen certificates part of a “systemic bias against First Nations. It was a really easy out for high schools to take our kids out of the academic stream and put them in the alternate stream,” he said.
He called this practice “racism of low expectations.”
“We have to accept that outcomes for our kids aren’t where any of us want them to be,” said McNeil. “Let’s get together and do something about it.”
About 11 per cent of the public school population is aboriginal.
John Lewis, North Vancouver schools superintendent, Christie Sacré, chair of the North Vancouver Board of Education and Brad Baker, district administrator of aboriginal education, all attended Friday’s announcement.
