Two Sask. Indigenous community schools join national literacy program
Schools in the Beardy's and Okemasis Cree Nation and the Moosomin First Nation are taking steps to better their literacy rates.
The Chief Beardy Memorial Education Complex, north of Saskatoon, and the Moosomin School, north of North Battleford, have joined the Martin Family Institute's (MFI) Model School Literacy Project.
The project aims to improve early childhood literacy rates in First Nation, Metis and Inuit communities across the country.
"Literacy is basically one of the key components of day-to-day life," Quenton Swiftwolfe, education portfolio holder for the Moosomin First Nation, said. "It's something we utilize every day, regardless if it's school, work or play."
Swiftwolfe said Moosomin School's application was filed last minute but administrators were able to get the job done to garner the new title.
Suzie Carriere, the principal of the Chief Beardy Memorial School in the Beardy's and Okemasis Cree Nation, said she was very excited for the school to be a part of the program.
She said her students are typically at a literacy rate which is roughly a year to a year-and-a-half behind their peers of the same age in the region. She said she hoped the four years of MFI work in the community would help contribute to youth's growth.
"In four years, I want our kids to be at, or better than the other schools in the region in terms of the literacy rate," Carriere said.
Carriere said being a part of the program has already given herself and her staff professional development tools to teach them how to better use the resources they have at the school.
She said MFI has also contributed to expanding the school's library in an effort to give students more options when it comes to reading.
The MFI's Model School Initiative started at two First Nations schools in Ontario in 2009. Literacy rates in those schools were around 13 per cent for Grade 3 students. After five years of MFI work, those same schools achieved an 81 per cent literacy rate for the Grade 3 level.
The Model School Literacy Project operated out of eight schools across the country before the additions of Moosomin School and Chief Beardy Memorial School.
