Fort William First Nation Niigaanaabda Education Program welcomes new adult education teacher
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM — Fort William’s Niigaanaabda Education Program for adult learners to complete high school credits for their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is continuing with a new teacher after originally launching in 2016.
“It’s a really good program because it’s a self-study program that students can do at their own speed,” says Rosemary McNabb, adult education teacher at the Niigaanaabda Education Program who took on her new role this past December with almost 40 years of high school teaching experience. “For adults 19 and above who maybe the first time around life happened and they didn’t get their diploma or for adults who for some reason didn’t get it and really want to get it for job opportunities or just for that satisfaction that they got it, it’s a great program.”
McNabb says the students can work on the courses at the Niigaanaabda Education Program classroom, which is located in the Fort William First Nation Community Centre and open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or at home.
“They can work at home at it, they can come in and get some help if they need, it’s very flexible,” McNabb says. “There’s no timeline required, they can finish whenever, so it works.”
McNabb says the students enjoy doing the courses at their own pace.
“This works well for people that have a busy life and have a hard time devoting this many hours every day,” McNabb says. “They can do it in spurts.”
McNabb says they have many students who only need a couple of credits to earn their OSSD.
“That seems to really work well,” McNabb says. “It can be as quickly as a couple of months [that] they can finish those last couple of courses and get their diploma.”
McNabb says the students need to have completed the mandatory courses such as English and Math to earn their OSSD, but they can do other courses that interest them for their other high school senior credits.
“We do have some Indigenous learning courses,” McNabb says. “We have co-op courses as well, so there is a variety there.”
McNabb says the students can also receive high school credits for their life experiences as well as have the opportunity to do Prior Learning Assessment Recognition courses for Grade 9 and 10.
“The students are always surprised at how many high school credits they can get for life experience, job experience, and volunteer experience,” McNabb says. “So I think it’s a really good program for students.”
McNabb says there are a variety of foods, snacks, and drinks available for the students in the classroom.
“Some people come in and say they’re just going to drop this off, and they’ll drop off some work and then they’ll get their next bunch of work to do,” McNabb says. “Some people will choose to work here because they find that this is the only place they actually will do the work, it’s very individual.”
McNabb encourages people to check out the Niigaanaabda Education Program if they are interested in completing their high school credits for an OSSD, noting that her contact email is RosemaryMcNabb@fwfn.com and her other contact info is posted on a Fort William Facebook page posting at: www.facebook.com/fortwilliamfirstnation/.