 The British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care is implementing a new graduation requirement. It will ensure all secondary students complete Indigenous-focused coursework in order to graduate from BC's K-12 education system. This Indigenous-focused graduation requirement will ensure that all BC students have the benefit of the knowledge and perspectives and ways of knowing of Indigenous cultures and people who have lived in British Columbia on these lands since time immemorial. Now is an opportunity for students and teachers to learn about our rich culture, our rich identity, how we celebrate, how we feel good about ourselves, and their languages as well. I feel like the new grad requirements would bring more awareness to Indigenous peoples and what we've been through. Sharing the stories and things that did happen is eye-opening. Knowing knowledge fights racism and this is why it's so important to have this graduation requirement. I don't know if any of our efforts really will give back to their lives lost during the residential schools and colonial times and even the suffering now, but it is a step forward in like humanity and equality in Canada. We are striving to be an anti-racist society and we are on a path towards it. All these steps that we are taking will go a long way in creating an equal and just society. Teachers want to build an inclusive school. Teachers want all of these students, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to feel empowered leaving the class. Right now we're kind of figuring out who we are and when we go out into the world we'll have that new perspective. I think BC and Canada will benefit from it because the next generation of world leaders and people who will be in the workforce will all be properly educated. People who are in high school right now are basically the future. The future politicians, lawyers and just people who can make change, maybe even prime minister. Education is a really key component. That's where we're really going to make change as a society so that our young people grow up into human rights respecting adults and professionals in the world. Use requirements to make more students knowledgeable about the Indigenous cultures and traditions. We need to have open hearts and open minds and open ears. There's a lot of positive stories we can tell through curriculum, through this initiative that it'll make a better British Columbian citizen go forward. As of the 2023-24 school year, all secondary students are required to complete four credits of Indigenous-focused coursework in order to graduate. To meet the new graduation requirements, students can acquire these credits several ways based on each school or school district's specific offerings. Students include completing one or more existing provincially developed courses such as English First Peoples, VC First Peoples or Contemporary Indigenous Studies, a First Nations Language Course at the grade 10-12 level, or a locally developed Indigenous-focused course that meets specific criteria. There will be no increase to the total number of credits required to graduate. Some of the Indigenous-focused provincial courses may also meet other graduation requirements for English and social studies in addition to the new graduation requirement. What we're doing is we're putting truth, reconciliation and justice into practice. This is what that looks like. With the new courses coming in and the grad requirement coming into place, ultimately it's about the respect that's being paid to local First Nations that shows them that we're all in this together. We're seeing kids take pride in who they are. We're seeing kids shine. Now we'll have a generation of graduates who have had an experience where they've come to understand the histories but also the richness of First Nations cultures and perspectives and worldviews. Advancing reconciliation through this grad requirement is going to come from exposing every child who goes through our K-12 system to a little bit more truth than they might have been exposed to because you can't have reconciliation until you have truth. Or if you don't know your past, you can't know your future.