So, I read this article on Indian Country Today titled Canada’s Aboriginal Education Panel in Place earlier today.

I was doing a bit of reading and trying to find out more about this proposed education panel. I wanted to find out 2 things:

1. Who was supposed to be on it
2. What was it meant to do How was this going to influence changes to Aboriginal education essentially

After reading this article, I found out that well, the panel was chosen in conjunction between the 2: AFN and Canadian Government. Good work. Then in the same article, National Chief Atleo is quoted saying,

“Our shared goal in this work is to dialogue with First Nations and other key players to advance a plan to implement sustainable solutions that put the success of First Nation children front and center,”

Okay really great. Unfortunately in that article, it only mentioned 3 people listed on the panel. Of those 3 people, not a single one was a youth. I know that the AFN has a youth council. Why wasn’t a youth rep included in that panel? I mean given that the issue is Aboriginal drop out rates or disenfranchisement, and central to those issues are youth. Wouldn’t a voice for the youth or at least some youth involvement be considered a key player in all of this? Because at Atleo says “plan to implement sustainable solutions that put the success of First Nations children front and center.” Who better than to include than a youth rep if not a few? Or maybe, the youth council would have been in attendance. Who knows?

That is all I have to say about this Aboriginal education panel.