By Michael Ganley Nunavut has a program that everyone else could learn from Inuit students spend eight months studying in Ottawa
Education is such a vast undertaking. From the anxiety over picking the right pre-school to managing the cost of a post-doc – and for as long as a person wants to continue thereafter – we participate in the education system. It includes the bricks and mortar of the buildings, the teachers at the front lines, the administrators up above and the maintenance guy in the boiler room. Today, it also includes the internet, home-schooling, language- and culture-based schools and special needs teachers.
And the success or failure of the system goes so far beyond the confines of buildings and curricula. Are the students getting enough food? Sleep? Support? Are the adults in their life participating?
After cataloguing all the add-ons, extras and special programs, the core of the system remains the public elementary, junior high and high schools. It is in these 12 years that children are taught not just the basics of reading, writing and math, but are either given a love for learning or not.
The statistics for the territories are disappointing, but improving. Our graduation rates (the percentage of teenagers who graduate from high school) are three of the four lowest in the country. In 2006-2007, Nunavut’s graduation rate was just 30 per cent. The Canadian average was 71 per cent. The NWT’s rate was 55 per cent and the Yukon’s 68. The province with the lowest rate was Alberta, at 65 per cent.
But as I say, there is some cause for applause: The number of graduates is skyrocketing in Nunavut and climbing in the other two territories. Between 2000-2001 and 2006-2007, the total number of graduates in Nunavut increased 69 per cent. The corresponding number for the NWT was 25 per cent and for the Yukon 23 per cent. The Canadian average was six per cent.
Gwich’in Elder Charlie Snowshoe has lamented that he and his colleagues in the Indian Brotherhood and Dene Nation were so busy negotiating land claims that they forgot to take enough care for the education of their children. As he and his generation step off the boards and committees that have fought so hard for the Dene to take their place in society, who are the people coming along to carry the torch? Who knows the treaties? Will they be left to hire lawyers to protect the hard-won ground?
Nunavut has a program that is working to close the gap. Nunavut Sivuniksavut takes about 20 students fresh from the territory’s high schools and plunks them in the middle of Ottawa’s Byward Market for eight months. Students in the program take courses in Inuit history and government relations. They learn about the negotiation and signing of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. With many courses taught in Inuktitut by Inuit, the program strengthens the students’ understanding of their language, culture and history. They visit Parliament Hill, the House of Commons, and the National Library and Archives. They learn practical skills like how to rent an apartment and manage money.
Created in 1985, the program’s original purpose was to train field workers who could keep people in the communities informed about the progress of land claims. Over the years, it evolved into a more general ‘transition’ year, preparing Inuit youth for college or university or for immediate entry into the Nunavut workforce.
The program has been successful, with 80 per cent of graduates continuing on to further post-secondary education or returning to work with the Nunavut government or Inuit organizations like Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Murray Angus, one of the founding members of NS, will receive the Order of Canada in the field of education for his work.
NS has recently launched an effort to raise $2.3-million to buy a former school in Ottawa. The current facility is bursting at the seams, and NS says the investment would allow it to double the number of students in the program (currently, only about one in every three kids who applies to NS is accepted). If that seems like a lot of money, consider that the three territories (plus the regional aboriginal organizations) have recently spent upwards of $10-million for a song and dance at the Olympics, and the NWT has had to commit a further $15-million (bringing the total to $182-million) for a bridge that few people are convinced is a good idea.
With those things in mind, $2.3-million to support a program that has successfully been training youth to take control of their lives and their society seems like a bargain. Our kids need to understand where and how they fit into the world. NS is one of the ways we can help them figure it out.
Michael Ganley is the editor of Up Here Business. Twitter: @MikeGanley.
