Teach for Canada fills recruitment gap for cash-strapped First Nations schools

A shortage of teachers delayed the start of school for some students in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, a First Nation community 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., last week.

It's a situation that Teach for Canada, a non-profit organization, was designed to rectify by recruiting, training and supporting teachers specifically to work in northern First Nations.

"We're pretty short staffed so we can't really do the things we want to do," said Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug education director Bill Sainnawap. "It's all tied into the shortage of money."

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First Nations schools in Ontario receive less funding from the federal government than the provincial government provides for schools in towns and cities, but are expected to deliver the same standard of education.

The funding challenges are even greater in isolated First Nations where everything from desks to textbooks to out-of-town teachers must be flown in, Sainnawap said.

"You have less quality with teachers because you're handicapped in the way you do you recruitment, you can't meet with teachers face-to-face," he said. "In recent years we've had to get assistance from other programs like Teach for Canada."

The organization screens teacher applicants, provides a summer training program to educate them about First Nations issues and offers support throughout the year.

Three of the teachers currently in Kitchenuhmaykoosib were in the first cohort of Teach for Canada recruits in 2015 and have returned for a second year in the community at the school which serves about 300 students from kindergarten to Grade 10.

Teach for Canada asks teachers to commit to at least two years in a First Nation. Going into his second year in Kitchenuhmaykoosib, high school teacher Kurtis Schmitz is already thinking beyond that.

"It's a great place, a very welcoming place, a very beautiful place," Schmitz said. "I was nervous coming into a fly-in community because I didn't know what to expect but as soon as I got here all my worries kind of melted away, I left them on the plane."

Grade 2 teacher Clinton James signed up with Teach for Canada and came to Kitchenuhmaykoosib last year, after more than a decade of teaching in another remote First Nation.

"Teach for Canada gives you a network, a little more of a safety net," James said, adding that some teachers, especially those straight out of university find it lonely living and working in First Nations.

"If the teacher disappears at Thanksgiving or goes home at Christmas time and doesn't come back, that doesn't do any good for the kids," James said. "The idea is that if you give them a network and enough information that they're comfortable in the north, they will stay and stop that revolving door."

One of the teachers missing at the beginning of the school year in Kitchenuhmaykoosib gave notice she was quitting just days before classes started.

It delayed the beginning of high school and meant Schmitz had to switch up which classes he'll teach, but he remains positive and grateful for the opportunities Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug is providing him.

"It's a very welcoming place, a very beautiful place and I thank every day that Teach for Canada has allowed me to come up here," he said.

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Education Authority hopes to have a full compliment of qualified teachers in place this week.