New Act will help Nunavut DEAs deliver language curriculum: minister

Education Minister Paul Quassa, with his deputy minister Kathy Okpik, speaks at a Nunavut Coalition of District Education Authorities meeting in Iqaluit last October. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut Education Minister Paul Quassa says he’s confident that his department’s proposed changes to the Education Act reflect the wishes of Nunavummiut, who have been consulted on education issues over the last two years.

Among the most talked-about changes, education officials recently proposed the creation of a new Nunavut-wide body, the District Education Authority Council, which would operate at an arms-length from government and advocate on behalf of community DEAs.

“The new legislative proposal will follow up on a lot of things what we heard in consultations,” Quassa said. “There were a lot of concerns about the DEAs’ role… and after the second round of consultations, I think we drastically changed the first [proposal] to reflect what we heard.

“I’m pretty happy about that.”

The proposed legislation was, in part, communicated to the territory through advertisements the Government of Nunavut purchased in local print media at the start of the new year.

Now, Quassa said information packages on the proposals have been distributed to the coalition, individual DEAs, Inuit organizations, and MLAs ahead of the legislature’s winter sitting later this month, when the new legislative will be tabled.

Quassa said the new council, directed by elected DEA members, would function as a support and advocacy body for local DEAs, including the provision of training to the community organizations.

But the council will have additional responsibilities compared with what the current coalition of DEAs currently holds, Quassa said.

The DEA council will itself be larger than the coalition, with an anticipated staff of five. The coalition, on the other hand, currently has only two staff members.

The council would also be required to present an annual report to the legislative assembly, and be subject to access to information legislation.

“This would enhance their accountability, and how they spend government funds,” he said.

Quassa did not say what sort of annual budget the new council might receive, but noted it would be similar to that of the current Nunavut Coalition of District Education Authorities.

The minister said the new council would ensure Nunavut’s DEAs have the means to select their curriculum and languages of instruction, and to deliver on them.

“We want to make sure that any new initiatives on language of instructions, DEAs can deliver,” he said. ““Although we have three distinctive choices of language instruction, we noticed that in a lot of cases, we’re not able to meet [the wishes of the school community].

“We want to make sure they have the resources and capability.”

The Nunavut Coalition of DEAs has taken issue with the proposed changes, saying the group feels it was left out of the process.

Although the government has made clear its wish to move towards a more centralized administration of education, DEAs have expressed concerns that local authorities will lose their say in how local education is delivered.

But Quassa said he sees the new council playing an important role in the delivery of curriculum under the updated Education Act, even as it moves towards increased standardization.

Nunavut’s current education act came into force in 2008. Since then, the legislation has been through major reviews by the territory’s legislative assembly as well as the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

“At the end of the day, it’s for our students and the betterment of education for all Nunavummiut,” Quassa said of the proposed changes.

Quassa said the new legislation will be tabled at the winter sitting of the legislative assembly, which sits from Feb. 20 until March 15.

“As a minister, I’m hoping to have this new education act in place before the end of the life of this government,” Quassa said.

That gives the GN roughly eight months to push the bill through; the next territorial election is scheduled for the end of October 2017.