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QUEBEC — More than 20 years after discovering a gap in education success rates of Indigenous children, the Quebec government has done little to correct the situation, the province’s auditor general says.
Tabling her 2024 annual report in the legislature Wednesday, auditor general Guylaine Leclerc said even if the government has known for years that Indigenous children have a lower chance of educational success than non-Indigenous students, it has “put in place few actions to ensure their success.”
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Little has been done to ensure “a safe and culturally pertinent” education environment despite years of government promises and recommendations along these lines, the auditor says.
And the funds set aside to help these students are not handed out based on their needs or regional realities, Leclerc adds.
When students make the choice to leave their Indigenous schooling system to enter the Quebec education system, they encounter a whole other series of obstacles. Few of the schools visited by the auditor’s staff have liaison officers to boost the level of confidence of students making the switch.
And the teachers and educators do not have sufficient training to understand the causes of certain behaviours or the necessary tools to accompany the students.
Leclerc says such students encounter three levels of obstacles: cultural differences, different pedagogical approaches and language differences.
The result has been a low success rate. Almost 40 per cent of Indigenous students in the period 2014 to 2017 put an end to their studies without having obtained a diploma or a certificate.
Today, 31.4 per cent of Indigenous Quebecers have no diploma or certificate. The percentage of non-Indigenous Quebecers without a diploma or certificate is 9.3 per cent.
There are 10 recognized Indigenous nations in Quebec. In 2021, the total population in these communities was 140,000.
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