Now that Wapekeka First Nation has a new school, it's time to figure out how to get more students in class
CBC
WARNING: This story contains references to youth suicide.
Another remote First Nation in northern Ontario is celebrating the opening of a new school.
Wapekeka First Nation, about 450 kilometres northeast of Sioux Lookout, is home to about 500 Oji-Cree people. The community's former school, Rev. Eleazar Winter Memorial, burned down in May 2015. A temporary school opened in 2016.
"It was very hard when our school burned down. A lot of hearts were broken. A lot of memories were crushed," said education director Ronald Brown.
Construction on the new school was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but on Friday, the community came together to cut the ribbon for Rev. Eleazar Winter Education Centre.
The school will have 120 to 140 students from junior kindergarten (K4) to Grade 8. Band manager Joshua Frogg said the community can usually accommodate its Grade 9 and 10 students before they finish high school in Sioux Lookout or Thunder Bay, but a teacher shortage has meant 14 and 15-year-olds had to move out early.
The $39.5-million project, sponsored by Indigenous Services Canada, is among other new schools in the region, including in:
"I feel very happy inside," said Wapekeka's Chief Brennan Sainnawap. "It's been a long time coming, a lot of setbacks, but we didn't give up."
Rupinder Kaur Jabbal and her family moved to Brampton, Ont., from India in 2019. Having worked in remote communities before, she seized the opportunity to teach in Wapekeka, where she could secure a permanent position instead of being a supply teacher in the Greater Toronto Area. Her husband has been hired as a medication clerk and community health representative in Wapekeka.
While her youngest son can attend kindergarten in the community, her eldest has been put on a waitlist to learn online through the Peel District School Board due to a shortage of high school teachers in Wapekeka.
Kaur Jabbal said everyone has been kind and supportive, though she is concerned with what she's heard about students' low attendance.
Georgina Winter, the school's vice principal and one of its teachers, will have 28 students in Grade 5/6 this year, though she describes her class as consisting of multi-learning levels ranging from kindergarten to Grade 5. Attendance has dropped significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in many students falling behind.
Up to half the school's students require special education services. Winter said the community hasn't had a special education teacher since the pandemic began early in 2020, though there are class helpers who provide extra assistance.
"We've tried lots of incentives for them to come to school, but still it's kind of hard to get them to participate in school," Winter said. "I'm hoping with this new school that we have, we have more students coming to school because we have a lot of the facilities that they could be using."
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