Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Kwe, good morning.

My name is Annie Gros-Louis, and I am the educational services director at the First Nations Education Council, FNEC. I am accompanied by John Martin, Chief of Gesgapegiag.

The FNEC is an association of first nations pursuing the common objective of exercising their full jurisdiction over the education of their communities. The association currently includes eight of the 11 nations in Quebec.

The FNEC's mission is excellence, educational success, cultural pride, as well as control of education by and for first nations.

That is why, on July 14, 2022, 22 member communities, the FNEC and the Government of Canada signed a regional education agreement to ensure equitable, predictable and sustainable funding for early childhood, elementary and secondary education for FNEC first nations.

That agreement will enable first nations to work toward improving student outcomes in a context of financial stability and flexibility, so that they can access and direct resources to better meet students' educational needs.

The FNEC itself provides an economy of scale and second-level education services, such as special education, professional development, language and culture, school administration, technology and data governance services.

The FNEC has adopted the learning schools model for its collaborative work with school teams in member communities. In this vision, the FNEC works upstream in a targeted manner with schools to develop educational directions and strategies based on data gathered by the schools themselves.

Finally, that agreement proposes clear accountability structures to operationalize and potentially measure progress, development and the achievement of its goals, including academic performance, ancestral language learning and access to specialized services.

Tiawenhk.

Transcript

Discussions (0)