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Benjamin Shingler
Telegraph-Journal

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FREDERICTON - Teaching the province's First Nations students in their native language would help improve their academic performance, says a local expert.

Andrea Bear Nicholas, who teaches at St. Thomas University and has researched the topic, says studies show that New Brunswick's First Nations children would benefit not only from taking language courses in Mi'kmaq or Maliseet, but being taught the core curriculum in their native language as well.

"Here is a solution that is coming from so many studies around the world," Bear Nicholas said.

"It's a win-win situation, because we could do better in school and preserve our languages."

It's clear the current system needs to somehow be improved. There is a significant education gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginals. In New Brunswick, 38 per cent of aboriginal women and 41 per cent of aboriginal men did not complete high school, according to Statistics Canada's 2006 census. That's about 10 percentage points higher than non-aboriginal women and men.

Like proponents of early French immersion, Bear Nicholas argues that learning another language would improve overall academic performance.

Jessica Ball, a professor at the University of Victoria and an expert on child development, agrees.

She says research shows learning another language at a young age improves cognitive skills.

"We know that bilingual language acquisition is associated with a certain amount of extra cognitive mapping," she said.

Last April, the department, the federal government, and the province's First Nations signed a tripartite agreement to improve academic performance of students in band-operated and provincial schools.

The federal government has committed $268 million over five years to improve First Nations education in the province, on top of $75 million that was already in place.

The agreement provides for the province to reinvest 50 per cent of tuition fees to be co-managed by school districts and First Nations.

Currently, First Nations students in the province have the option to attend band schools on the reserves or public schools off the reserves.

In both cases, Bear Nicholas says students generally don't have the chance to learn their native language.

First Nations languages in the province are threatened, and Bear Nicholas says if nothing is done to reverse the trend, Maliseet/Passamaquoddy and Mi'kmaq are headed for extinction.

With most fluent speakers over 60 years of age, experts estimate Maliseet/Passamaquoddy has only about 10 more years of viability.

Mi'kmaq also has very few speakers who are children, and is projected to last another 30 years.

Bear Nicholas acknowledges such a drastic shift in policy would be costly, and difficult to implement. But she says the current system isn't working, and needs to be changed.

"I can't see that we have any choice," she said.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock met with First Nations chiefs and educators in Fredericton earlier this month to discuss policy changes to the First Nations education system.

While nothing was finalized at the meetings, Lamrock said in an interview later in the week that improving native language education was mentioned by several First Nations leaders.

"That's one of the priority areas," he said.

In February, Lamrock and a group of First Nations leaders will travel to Saskatchewan for the Council of Ministers of Education conference to discuss proposed changes with his provincial counterparts.