TORONTO - Canada's education ministers meet Tuesday in Toronto to discuss how the country is faring in its efforts to help Aboriginal students succeed in school.
The number of Aboriginals who hold a university degree is about a third the national average, according to the 2006 census.
Meanwhile, more than twice as many Aboriginals never complete high school when compared with the general population.
With the number of school-aged Aboriginals expected to climb steadily higher over the next decade, Canada's education ministers have set their sights on helping Aboriginal students thrive.
Andrew Parkin, director of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, says the ministers will discuss several Canada-wide education issues.
Among them is how to attract more international students to Canada's classrooms, in order to strengthen Canada's place in the global marketplace.
But sitting atop the ministers' agendas is a meeting with several Aboriginal groups to discuss what progress has been made since 2009 in helping Aboriginal students succeed in school.
The ministers will meet with five Aboriginal organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations, the Metis National Council and the Native Women's Association of Canada.
"There are concerns at every stage in the education continuum, from being ready for school going into kindergarten all the way up to graduation from university and college," said Parkin.
The struggles of First Nations students are expected to be felt most in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, who have the largest proportion of Aboriginal learners.
In both of those provinces, 15 per cent more Aboriginals received low scores on a 2003 adult literacy test versus non-Aboriginals.
"In that sense they're the most impacted because their future workforce, their society has a greater proportion of Aboriginal peoples, so any gaps will put them as a disadvantage," said Parkin.
Following a summit in 2009, each province has launched initiatives to keep Aboriginal students in classrooms, bring more Aboriginal content into school curriculums and help students transition from high school to college or university.
This week's meetings will assess those initiatives and look for areas where more work is needed.
"There is no one magic solution," said Parkin.
"This has to be addressed across the continuum. There are things that have to be done at the very early stages of learning, and there are things that have to be done at the college and university levels, and at every point in between."
Some of the initiatives take place outside of the classroom and work to strengthen the relationship between schools and the families of Aboriginal students.
The ministers will also discuss the results of an international student assessment released late last year, that saw Canada's education system ranked sixth overall in the world.
