Nunavut needs to keep more kids in school: Ugyuk

District Education Authorities in Nunavut need to put more focus on drafting school attendance policies that work, Nattilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk said in the Nunavut legislature June 6. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

District Education Authorities in Nunavut need to put more focus on drafting school attendance policies that work, Nattilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk said in the Nunavut legislature June 6.

“I rise today to once again stress the urgent need to address the high rates of non-attendance in our schools,” Ugyuk said. “I understand that many of the District Education Authorities…are working on attendance policies for their communities, but things seem to be taking a very long time to be finalized and implemented.In the meantime, children are falling through the cracks.”

Ugyuk pointed to statistics from the last school year to this one, which show the numbers of habitual “non-attenders” at school have risen in the Kitikmeot region, where Ugyuk represents the communities of Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak.

Those figures also show the majority of absent students are teenagers and young adults, she said.

“I believed, like many others, that when we got more Inuit teachers in our schools, this would keep more of our students in school as well,” Ugyuk said. “But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.”

Under Nunavut’s Education Act, DEAs are required to establish attendance policies for their communities.

“I believe that we need to be doing more work in this area and we need to be doing it now before another generation loses the potential to become productive adults and future leaders,” Ugyuk said.

Also speaking June 6 in the legislature, Premier Eva Aariak said the education department is working on a student records system which will provide for “consistent data collection” on attendance in Nunavut schools.

“This is very important to us,” Aariak said. “We’re looking at different ways to try to get students to attend school or get them interested in going to school and how we can improve the school system.”

While school attendance is still a concern across the territory, school absenteeism in the 2009-10 academic year decreased overall in Nunavut by four per cent from the previous year, she said.

Attendance in Nunavut schools averages out at 71 per cent, she said.

Aariak mentioned a number of GN-led programs to encourage school attendance, including one called Naamanngittuq Upaqattanngikkuvit (It’s not okay to be away).

Education officials in Baker Lake are gathering data as part of a pilot project on what can help students stay in school. Other programs are in the works to target students in grades six to nine – when students often drop out – and to keep boys interested in school, Aariak said.

“Improving attendance requires the combined efforts of schools, DEAs, education, parents, and the whole community,” she said.

Aariak also congratulated the outgoing grade 12 students at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, who celebrated their graduation June 4.

The graduating class of 60 students in the largest group that school has seen to date, she said.