Literacy of Canada’s aboriginals lagging behind rest of country: TD report

Aboriginal people in Canada are lagging behind when it comes to literacy.

“Four out of ten Aboriginal children score poorly in early development testing in the areas of language and communication skills. One factor contributing to this is that less than half of First Nations children in Canada read a book every day,” said Sonya Gulati, senior economist with TD Bank Group and the report’s author.

Craig Alexander, Chief Economist with TD adds strong literacy skills correlates with higher levels of education.

“If you have stronger literacy skills you’re more likely to complete high school,” Alexander said. “You’re more likely to go on to post-secondary education.”

The struggles in education is something Marcella Nabigon-Guerin can identify with. The Ryerson student says many aboriginal students are indirectly impacted by the residential school system.

“All of us have been indirectly impacted,” she said. “And I think that’s what kept us away from pursuing university educations in the past. It’s that feeling of inferiority and perhaps we couldn’t do it.”

But Nabigon-Guerin did do it and she isn’t alone. She is one of 44 Aboriginal students, the largest group so far to graduate from Ryerson University.

University officials credit the support system in place for Aboriginal students.

Monica McKay is the Director of Aboriginal Initiatives at Ryerson University and says there is a support system in place right from the start and the University created an Aboriginal Liason admissions officer to help students.

“That person is responsible for the community outreach and recruitment but is also the person that takes a look at the aboriginal applications that come in.”

Once in university, students have everything from peer support to traditional counsellors.

“We understand that our learner is not your average direct entry student,” McKay said. “They come more mature,  they’ve been away from the classroom for some time.”

And Friday is National Aboriginal Day.

Lieutenant Governor David Onley marked the day with a tweet to promote Aboriginal summer reading camps.

The camps began as an initiatve from former Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman.

Alexander says while there have been positive initiatives in place “more needs to be done.”

Nabigon-Guerin agrees that more needs to be done for future generations.

“Fourty-four students is fantastic,” she said. “But there was 5000, almost 5600 that graduated from Ryerson so I think that number needs to be higher.”