Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian education system – an attempt to reconcile to the past, the current situation and planned activities

This article is devoted to theoretical considerations on the education of Canadian Indigenous Peoples. In the past, this education was provided in state boarding schools by priests and nuns, mainly for First Nations children aged 4– –16, who were sent there forcibly, taken by force from their parents. There were many cases of abuse in schools such as: physical, mental and sexual violence, experienced by approximately 150 000 children. Some of them never returned to family homes. These schools destroyed the psyche of many young people and influenced their later lives. It was not until 2005 that the Canadian government officially apologized to survivors and their families for the harm suffered by several generations of Indigenous Peoples during 120 years of compulsory education, conversion and integration into white colonizing society. Currently, the Canadian government willing to compensate for past harm, is working at federal and provincial levels to improve access of Indigenous people to the education system at all levels.