Wahsa funded for 2010/11

Wahsa Distance Education Centre has secured funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) for the 2010/2011 school year.
This past winter, Northern Nishnawbe Education Council (NNEC) said it would have to shut down the Wahsa program since it was receiving less money from INAC.
NNEC operated on a $20.7 million budget in 2009/2010 and $23.4 million in 2008/2009. But INAC said it was providing $15.6 million for the 2010/2011 school year. NNEC claims it needs at least $21 million to operate the organization.
But INAC visited Wahsa in mid-April to gather information in order to conduct an in-depth review of the alternative secondary education programming Wahsa provides to remote First Nation communities.
And in an April 30 letter to the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, INAC announced that Wahsa’s funding would not be changed for the 2010/2011 school year. But INAC said they still would still like to continue a review with the data gathered in the mid-April visit.
“According to their (INAC) indication to us is that they will continue the same funding arrangement as before,” Josie Semple, spokesperson for NNEC, said.
INAC said once the detailed review is completed a meeting will be scheduled with NNEC to discuss their findings and develop a plan for future data collection and resourcing.
“They still want to do … an assessment,” Semple said. “And after that there might be changes according to what they’ll find. But I don’t know how much, how this is going to change.”
Wahsa is a provincially accredited and federally funded high school that delivers curriculum through satellite centers in 23 First Nations in the Sioux Lookout area.
Wahsa has about 788 registered students.