First Nations and BC Tripartite Education Agreement

During November, President Andrea Sinclair and Vice-President Rina Diaz had the honour to attend the second Jointly Convened Annual Meeting - hosted by the Ministry of Education and the First Nations Education Steering Committee - an annual two day event focused on the BC Tripartite Education Agreement (BCTEA) and supporting First Nations student success.

The event is an important component of our collective efforts to achieve systemic change in public education and included all 60 school districts, all First Nations chairs and all the education partners. It was a powerful and thought-provoking event which pushed our thinking to “do constructive change to the status quo”. There was discussion of the BC Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was brought into law just over one year ago, Local Education Agreements (LEAs) and transportation and children and youth in care.

The event featured engaging speakers who shared their lived experiences and knowledge which provided guidance for attendees to start taking the first steps towards Reconciliation; to engage with our Indigenous parents we all need to start building the trust that was lost. A commonality among the speakers was that the system is flawed and needs to transform to meet the needs of all our students and that transformation, starts with us.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and BCCPAC is thankful to have been in attendance. Learn more about the BCTEA.