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The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) has selected two organizations to co-lead its new Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre. The organizations are the First Nations Adult Higher Education Consortium, which is made up of 10 First Nation colleges and adult training centres in western Canada, and the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan.
The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre is one of five knowledge centres created by CCL to examine key areas of learning that require urgent attention. Each knowledge centre is responsible for building a national network of experts to advise CCL on its learning domain, including the priorities for research, knowledge mobilization, monitoring and reporting, and knowledge exchange. The other centres are: Adult Learning (Atlantic Canada), Early Childhood Learning (Quebec), Health and Learning (British Columbia and Yukon), and Work and Learning (Ontario).
The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre, the final centre to be created, is based in the region encompassing the Prairie provinces, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
CCL is based on a model of inclusion, partnership and collaboration. As a first step in the development of the knowledge centre, CCL invited a small group of Aboriginal scholars, leaders and advisors from across Canada to help develop an application process that would achieve maximum involvement of Aboriginal Peoples. Based on recommendations from that gathering, CCL commissioned a background paper on Aboriginal learning and then convened a National Dialogue on Aboriginal Learning in November 2005. The meeting brought together community groups, learners, government and NGOs to identify issues, effective practices and priorities for an Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre.
In March 2005, CCL issued a request for Expressions of Interest to identify organizations interested in participating in the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre. As a result, when CCL launched the official application process in December 2005, organizations interested in leading the Centre already had a pool from which they could start building a consortium. The organizations selected to co-lead the new knowledge centre are the Aboriginal Education Research Centre (AERC) of the University of Saskatchewan and the First Nations Adult Higher Education Consortium (FNAHEC).
Nearly twice as many working-age Aboriginals do not have their high-school diploma (39%) as non-Aboriginal Canadians (22%). This alone is a dramatic illustration that Canada’s education systems have been failing Aboriginal peoples for decades.
In November 2005, the historic Kelowna summit between Canadian governments and Aboriginal Peoples formally acknowledged that such a wide gap is unacceptable and resolved to find solutions.
Those solutions involve Aboriginal Peoples developing new skills and knowledge in a way that is integrally linked to their language, culture, place, as well as elders and communities.
The newly created Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre has a role to play in this. It will:
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