Issues surrounding the education of the African-Nova Scotian, have been debated for centuries. Today, these issues are still at the forefront of the developmental agenda of African-Nova Scotian communities. If we examine l'etat d'affaires of the communities: ghettoized education, a drop-out rate that far exceeds the national average, escalating teenage pregnancies, low self-esteem, a fragmented value system, little value for education, the unemployment and under-employment of "educated" African-Canadians, and the absence of African-Nova Scotians on Nova Scotian university campuses or the at Community Colleges, we will either conclude that nothing has been done to deal with these issues, or that all that has been attempted has failed.

The need for an educational agenda, for the Communities is not in question, and is in fact widely recognized. It is the content of the agenda that merits examination. Recognizing there is already an agenda in place, whether formal or informal, or whether designed by the community or by government, African-Nova Scotians must take stock of such an agenda. It is important that we examine it, and upon examination, formally endorse the current agenda, modify it, or create a whole new agenda. Whatever the decision, it is important that it stems from a well-thought-out philosophical base. Such a base must encompass the social, political, and economic realities of our times.

Producing a widely accepted philosophy for the education of the African-Nova Scotian Community, through participative debate, will be difficult but not impossible. We have to seek ways of bringing community institutions together on this subject, and once the philosophy is forged, ensure that the philosophy is adhered to by the government, the schools, and the community, all working together in a trilateral partnership arrangement.

Forging a philosophy requires a unified view of the African-Nova Scotian Community in relation to the rest of Nova Scotia and indeed Canada. This is a necessary step, as we share the same province and the same country. I personally like the view of the African-Nova Scotian Community as a country within a country with open borders. The former country, for the lack of a better term, is a "developing one", and the latter a "more developed one". This view, in my opinion, forces us to critically examine the governance of ourselves relative to the governance of our neighbor (the rest of the province and Canada). In doing so, we can learn a lot from the losers in a free-trade deal (for example Canada) given that our borders are open, and about the strategies that have made small countries like Korea and Singapore (once insignificant) mighty and strong. We must seriously examine ourselves with a view to developing strategies that would: strengthen our economy, impose our political agendas, sustain our cultural values (as in the case of Quebec), curtail the brain-drain from our Communities, cease the exploitation of our labor, and provide a happy home for our citizens.

At the heart of any developmental program aimed at moving African-Nova Scotian Community forward, is major a role for its educational agenda. Its citizens must be educated at all levels. However, this education must be relevant to the developmental agenda. It is my view that educational agenda must embed the true essence of self-liberation - hence liberation education must be the nature of the educational agenda. The educational agenda must include among its objectives: a) the creation of visionaries and critical-thinkers, (History will support the thesis that several turning points in the life of African-Americans and African-Canadians, were accompanied by the presence of prominent African visionaries such as: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Carrie Best, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcom X), b) the creation of a mechanism to examine and understand our mis-education, and the creation of programs to reeducate ourselves, (Carter G. Woodson provides an excellent expose of our mis-education which he shows as being extremely counterproductive), and c) the creation of skilled persons who will serve our communities in all areas. These include skills such as: medicine, law, engineering, education, literature, history, teaching, technology, social services, and so on. It is of paramount importance, that in every aspect of our education we constantly ask, how are these concepts relevant to the development of my community, or how can I make them relevant ? For without a philosophical center for our education, the development of our community is doomed to suffer.

Given the nature of the materialistic and individualistic society we live in, one which believes that individuals should be given equal opportunity, but should be rewarded only on the basis of merit (a meritocracy), the African-Nova Scotian community will have to contend with two types of educational needs: the individual need, where the individual satisfies their own personal educational desire, and the community need, where individuals are educated in the context of the community's agenda. It will require a selling job to have people align their educational paths with the community's agenda, as many of us believe, consciously of subconsciously, in educational eclecticism. While this notion of educational eclecticism is appealing under a meritocracy, I am not convinced that it will guarantee the relaization of the developmental agenda of the African-Nova Scotian Community.

There is, however, opportunity to pursue a community-based educational agenda. In attempting to address the impact of racism in the education of African-Nova Scotians, several educational programs and strategies have emerged. The appointments of race-relations officers at two school boards, the following four programs at Dalhousie University: the Indigenous Blacks and Micmacs Law Program, the Supervisory Skills Program for Blacks, the Transition Year Program, and the Black Studies Chair, the Black Incentive Program, the Black Learning Center, and the Black Learners Advisory Committee, are all examples of these programs. Unfortunately, all of the above programs did not emerge under a unified educational agenda defined by African-Nova Scotians. They emerged, for the most part, from knee-jerk reactions to pressure from the African-Nova Scotian Community. While this pressure had the desired effect of creating movement on the issues, unfortunately, many of these programs were handed down, and cannot be characterized as having full community participation. Hence the need for a well defined educational agenda for the Community.

Further, it is important that the African-Nova Scotian Community specify the programs that have it earmarked as the beneficiary, so as to ensure consistency with its educational agenda, and not allow government institutions and other public institutions such as school boards and universities to direct its agenda. Failure to take control, will only lead to the perpetual mis-education of the African-Nova Scotian, and the inevitable failure of the Community to realize its full developmental potential.

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