Seventy per cent of young aboriginal adults living on Manitoba reserves have not completed high school — the highest dropout rate among on-reserve youth in Canada, a senior analyst said Thursday.

In a report released in October, Michael Mendelson, senior scholar with the Caledon Institute of Social Policy in Ottawa, found the problem extends across the country, but is especially acute in Manitoba.

"Aboriginal people, particularly on reserve, are failing to complete high school. Not only failing to go on to post-secondary education, but not even getting through high school," Mendelson said Thursday.

"About 70 per cent of young adults on reserve do not complete high school in Manitoba. That's the highest rate on reserve in any province."

Mendelson's research also found that nearly 50 per cent of young aboriginal adults in Winnipeg haven't finished high school. Overall, he said, aboriginal education should be one of the most serious issues facing the province today.

Economic repercussions

"How can a province like Manitoba be prosperous economically if 10 to 15 per cent of its labour force essentially can only be employed at very low skilled jobs that don't even require a high school graduation?" he said.

"There's fewer and fewer of those jobs all the time. Both socially and economically, this is kind of [a] long-term tsunami that's facing Manitoba."

Mendelson said he believes part of the problem is that reserves do not have educational supports, or even a school system. As well, remote communities do not have curriculum development, teacher evaluation or superintendents, he said.

As part of the solution, Mendelson said the federal government should create a new national education act to allow First Nations to create their own school boards and systems.