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Child rights advocates aim to shame Canada before United Nations committee

Dealing with black mould, snakes and rat infestations are a routine part of the school day for some First Nation students.

This is according to one of the authors of a scathing report co-published by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and KAIROS about Canada's First Nation schools.

Canadian Press reports, the study was presented to the United Nations committee on the rights of the child, with the hopes that shaming Ottawa before the world will lead to concrete improvements for aboriginal children.

The report notes First Nations schools receive between $2000 and $3000 less per student than provincially run schools and that the disparity has led to a lack of resources for aboriginal students. This affects everything from libraries and computers to issues such as overcrowding and declining graduation rates.

In response to the report, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan told PostMedia News Monday, his department has completed "tremendous" work in building new schools in aboriginal communities and has even created an independent panel to review on-reserve schools.

The Canadian Press notes the panel, currently touring the country, have themselves found similar conditions to those referenced in the UN report.

They witnessed classrooms in dire need of repair and even came across an entire class that failed Grade 9 math who had four different teachers during the year.

"I think most Canadians have no idea ...," said Scott Haldane, chairman of the panel.

"We have one educational system run by provinces and then we have a non-system, with some exceptions. You couldn't really call this a system.

"It's piecemeal, it's leaving schools to fend for themselves and it's under-funded."

There are approximately 118,000 First Nations students living on reserves in Canada whose education is funded by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. About 60 per cent of them attend the band-operated or federal schools on reserve, while about 40 per cent go to provincial schools or private schools off reserve, according to the national panel.