Ministers responsible for education, who comprise CMEC, have identified Indigenous education as one of the priorities in the CMEC Strategic Plan, 2023–27. In so doing, they have recognized the critical importance of facilitating improved education outcomes for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit learners at all stages of their lifelong learning journey, and of supporting the building of intercultural understanding across education systems.
The CMEC Indigenous Education Plan (IEP), 2023–27, as the guiding framework for CMEC’s work on Indigenous education, represents one of the means available to ministers to collectively respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action—particularly Call to Action 63, directed at CMEC—and to act in the spirit of the objectives and principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This new, four-year strategic plan builds on work already accomplished under priority initiatives in the previous IEP, 2019–22 (which was extended for one year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic). The IEP, 2023–27 aims to promote the sharing of wise practices and culturally relevant information in order to create more inclusive, holistic, and culturally responsive education systems that respect and honour First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples’ perspectives, fostering a path toward Truth and Reconciliation.