Indigenous teachers and staff are significantly under-represented in the public education system. Approximately 6,000 Indigenous teachers are required to be in proportion with the number of Indigenous students in BC public schools.

Under Action 4.2 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan, the Province has committed to “develop and implement an effective recruitment and retention strategy to increase the number of Indigenous teachers in the K-12 public education system.”

Since 2022, FNESC, IAHLA, the Ministry of Education and Child Care, and the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills have been meeting at the First Nations Teacher Recruitment and Retention Working Group to jointly implement strategies that will improve the recruitment and retention of First Nations teachers in the public K-12 system.

The Working Group meets regularly to advance a workplan outlining actions to increase the representation of First Nations in the K-12 system, including: