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The G8 Supplementary Courses Program is a free online resource for First Nation elementary schools that have high speed Internet access.

The program allows grade 8 classrooms across Ontario to participate in an online learning program that aims to:

• Improve students’ computer, science, math and literacy skills
• Help prepare students for high school
• Promote awareness and pride in First Nations identity, events and issues
• Connect students and teachers from First Nations schools across Ontario

The G8 Program is designed to enrich – not replace – classroom learning. To participate in the program, students are required to access the Internet for three hours per week (scheduled according to your local preference). During this time, students work to complete short assignments written especially First Nation students. The online environment allows students to exchange messages with participants from other First Nation schools and view photo albums of people, places and events in First Nation communities. Over the last two years, hundreds of students and teachers from schools all over Ontario have taken part in this program. 

There are still a few spaces open for the upcoming Math course, which is scheduled to begin on April 24, 2006. We are excited to announce that this course will also introduce a number of upgrades and new features, such as the ability for teachers to create their own custom courses. Custom online courses are a great way to create activities and lessons in a format that can be used for years to come (please note that teachers will be responsible for marking all assignments within their custom courses).

Grade 8 teachers are invited to register their class by filling out a registration form on the G8 Program website: www.g8.firstnationschools.ca  

Click here to download a program poster.

NEWS RELEASE - MONDAY APRIL 17, 2006

SCO to rally in support of Indian residential school survivors’ compensation package 

WINNIPEG, MB - On Wednesday April 19, 2006, at 12:00 PM, the Manitoba Southern Chiefs’ Organization will rally in support of the Indian residential school survivors’ compensation package during Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s luncheon speech at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.

An Agreement-in-Principle (AIP) to compensate survivors was reached last November between the former Federal Liberal Government and the Assembly of First Nations. Included in this package was a lump-sum payment of $8,000.00 for every residential school survivor, an improved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process and a formal apology issued by the Prime Minister of Canada to survivors.

Since the 2006 Federal General Election, the new Conservative Government has remained silent on whether or not they will honour the November 2005 AIP package.

“We are calling upon Prime Minister Harper to uphold and honour the compensation package for our Indian residential school survivors,” stated Southern Grand Chief Chris Henderson. “As each day passes, our survivors are getting older, and some are passing on, without even seeing the possibility of this Agreement-in-Principle come to fruition. Aside from the financial compensation component, our survivors are also calling for a formal apology from the Prime Minister of Canada. This would begin the road to healing and reconciliation for our elders who were subjected to this gross and unjust social engineering of the worst kind.”

All nations are welcome to attend and participate in this call for justice and action for our Indian residential school survivors.

from http://66.244.236.251/article_5653.php

Transition school in the works
By CHEN CHEKKI - Apr 17, 2006

It’s something that happens all too often to the youth of Mishkeegogamang First Nation.

The Northwestern Ontario community, 30 kilometres from Pickle Lake, is forced to send its high school-aged students to schools in Thunder Bay, Ear Falls and Pelican Falls because it has no secondary school of its own.

Most of the other 49 reserves belonging to Nishnawbe Aski Nation are forced to do the same, as their schools usually go only as high as Grade 8 or Grade 10.

As a result of being put in a totally different environment, many of the students are exposed to things they are not normally exposed to and lack their ordinary support structure, said Connie Gray-McKay, chief of Mishkeegogamang.

Also, some of the teenagers are parents already, she said in an interview.

Many of the students are four or five years behind where they should be academically. Combined with the shock of their new surroundings, it makes for a recipe for dropping out of school.

“Many of them drop out and come back,” Gray-McKay said.

She said her community of about 1,500 is planning to have its own school, designed to teach basic trades skills along with the fundamentals of reading, math and life skills.

It is known as the Mish Tech Initiative and it has been in the works for the last two years. It could lead to the construction of a school by the end of summer.

The school would not be a substitute for urban high schools, but a transition point to prepare youth to go away to high school or enter the workforce. It may eventually offer accredited courses.

Courses in small motor repair, computers, woodworking and mining technology could be taught at the school.

Gray-McKay said when new homes are built in her area, plumbers, carpenters and electricians must be brought in from elsewhere to do the job.

“Why, when we can train our own young people?”

David Smith, an Ottawa-based entrepreneur who opened a trades school in his city nine years ago, said the new school will help satisfy the Northern demand for workers in mining and other industries.

As a member of the Mish Tech Initiative, he said the youth of Mishkeegogamang lack incentives, encouragement and motivation without their own high school.

“These young adults have to have some type of training,” Smith said.

Goyce Kakegamic, deputy grand chief of NAN, said to the best of his knowledge no other trade school exists in NAN territory.

Aboriginal teenagers tend to be “academically overwhelmed” when they arrive in urban centres such as Thunder Bay to complete high school, he said. Kakegamic said the new school in Mishkeegogamang would be “good for our people.”

However, Kakegamic said NAN has no money for the school, which could cost $2 million. Most of that cost would be for construction, with the rest used to run the school for its first year.

Funding will be sought from Ottawa, the province and the private sector, but the school would be run by the reserve, becoming part of Mishkeegogamang’s existing educational system.

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