OTTAWA--Students are calling on the federal government to live up to its responsibility to fund Aboriginal education, following Friday's announcement that Prime Minister Stephen Harper added Canada as a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples'.

"Aboriginal peoples welcome Canada's belated acknowledgement of Aboriginal rights," said Cassandra Opikokew, Chairperson of the National Aboriginal Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students. "However, signing the is merely symbolic unless the government lives up to its responsibilities to Aboriginal people."

The Federal government has failed to uphold its treaty responsibilities to Aboriginal peoples, including providing access to post-secondary education. Funding for the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP), which provides funding for Aboriginal students to attend post-secondary education, falls far short of meeting the needs of Aboriginal learners. Since 1996, funding increases to the PSSSP have been capped at two percent per year, despite increases in the size of the Aboriginal youth population and tuition fee increases that have exceeded two percent per year.

"Over the past fourteen years more than 15,000 Aboriginal learners have been shut out of college and university," added Opikokew. "If the federal government is serious about indigenous rights, it needs to lift the cap and fully fund Aboriginal education."

Founded in 1981, the Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's largest student organisation, uniting more than one-half million students in ten provinces. The National Aboriginal Caucus is the voice of Aboriginal students in Canada, with members on campuses from St. John's to Victoria.