Indigenous residential schools

Indigenous residential schools, opened near the end of the 19th century and funded by the federal government in collaboration with the country’s major churches, were intended to assimilate indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society by removing them from the influence of their families, communities, and cultures. Although many indigenous communities had advocated access to education for their children, many individuals turned against the residential-school system because of the conditions to which students were subjected. Residential schools have come to be seen as oppressive and pedagogical failures that devastated indigenous people across Canada.