Modest increase in teacher numbers slated for Nunavut schools this year

A total of eight teaching positions will be added to Nunavut schools for 2016-17. (FILE PHOTO)

With school already started — or set to start soon — across Nunavut, territorial education officials report increases in teaching positions across Nunavut’s three regions.

The new positions follow an upheaval last year, when the Department of Education announced it would reallocate many teaching positions based on low student enrolment.

Hardest hit during the cuts were schools in Arviat which saw 12.5 positions cut before the 2015-16 school year.

This year, eight teaching positions have been added in Nunavut’s three regions, with the Qikiqtani region set to receive the largest increase of four new positions.

Qikiqtani School Operations executive director Trudy Pettigrew told Nunatsiaq News that the number of teachers in the region is “adequate” to provide the curriculum, but added that “schools can always use more staff.”

Overall, 29 positions within the Qikiqtani region remain vacant — 15 of these are teaching positions.

“Probably not all of them will be filled, but I don’t anticipate there being 15 vacant teaching positions at the start of the school year,” Pettigrew said.

A lack of housing across the region has hindered the hiring of learning coaches for Qikiqtani schools, she said.

Learning coaches, tasked with helping teachers and school staff properly deliver school programs, mainly in literacy programs, have also been affected by the lack of housing.

“Last year, we had zero learning coaches at the beginning of the school year, and we were only able to hire one. Some of that was because of no housing,” Pettigrew said, adding that nine learning coach positions have yet to be filled.

“This year I’m more optimistic that we will be able to move further with our literacy initiative having more learning coaches on staff in the schools.”

In the Kivalliq, 93 per cent of staffing positions are filled, said Bill Cooper, executive director for school operations.

“We have learning coaches in all of our schools,” Cooper said, although staff hiring for Naujaat’s new Tuugaalik High School is still ongoing.

As for the loss of 12.5 teaching positions in Arviat last year, Cooper said the regional school operations and the local district education authority will have to find a way to engage Kivalliq communities to increase student attendance.

“In order to move forward with additional staffing, we have to work with the DEA [district education authority] around student attendance and work on some strategies with all the stakeholders in the community,” Cooper said.

In the Kitikmeot region, schools had 43 positions to fill, but many of those hires will be done with existing faculty and administration, said Catherine Keeling, acting executive director for Kitikmeot School Operations.

In total, 0.5 positions were added to the Kitikmeot region for the 2016-17 school year.

Here’s a closer look at teaching re-allocations for Nunavut’s schools in 2016-17:

Baffin

Apex: no change

Arctic Bay: +1.5

Cape Dorset: -1

Clyde River: +4

Grise Fiord: no change

Hall Beach: no change

Igloolik: -1

Iqaluit: +3

Kimmirut: no change

Pangnirtung: -1

Pond Inlet: -1.5

Qikiqtarjuaq: no change

Resolute Bay: no change

Sanikiluaq: no change

Kivalliq

Baker Lake: +2.5

Rankin Inlet: no change

Arviat: -1

Chesterfield Inlet: no change

Naujaat: -0.5

Whale Cove: +1.5

Coral Harbour: +1

Kitikmeot

Cambridge Bay: +3

Kugluktuk: +0.5

Gjoa Haven: -2.5

Kugaaruk: -0.5

Taloyoak: no change

The school in Taloyoak was the first in Nunavut to open — they opened their doors for students July 29. All other schools in the Kitikmeot will open for students by Aug. 19.

In the Kivalliq, all schools will open for students by Aug. 18, while in the Qikiqtani region, many schools will open a bit later in the month. The six schools in Iqaluit are scheduled to open last — on Sept. 6.

For more information on when school starts in your community, you can visit the Nunavut Department of Education school information page to download a calendar for your region at this link here.