Nunavik school board says new curricula await Quebec’s approval

Two former students from Salluit’s Ikusik school celebrate their 2016 secondary school graduation last summer in the Nunavik community. (FILE PHOTO)

Annie Popert, the director of the Kativik School Board, says the board’s Secondary Four-level math and science curricula have been revised and now await approval from Quebec’s department of education.

Many Nunavik students and their parents discovered last week that the KSB has been unable to hand out real diplomas to its high school graduates in recent years because that curricula remains unaccredited by the province.

Instead, the KSB said its students have received attestations of equivalence certificates from Quebec since 2014-15—not 2013 as the school board first indicated.

Popert, who has served as KSB’s director since 2011, said the school board has had a difficult time working with Quebec’s education department, which is required to sign off on and help implement the newly-revised programs.

“There is no continuity,” Popert said, referring to a turnover in governments and department staff. “This is not a priority for Quebec—the fact that we have the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the right to develop our own curriculum.”

The KSB said in an open letter distributed to parents last week that its Secondary 4 math program would be developed, but Popert said that both the science and math curricula have been updated in recent years—as part of a Quebec-wide reform first introduced in 2000.

“We still don’t know if our programs have been analysed,” she said. “We’ve been pushing and pushing for months now.”

But the certificates came as news to many Nunavimmiut when it was brought up in Quebec’s National Assembly last week.

In the same open letter to Nunavimmiut, Popert apologized for a lack of communication on the issue and any confusion it may have caused, though the director told Nunatsiaq News it was in fact communicated to the region years earlier.

“It certainly was discussed at the commissioners’ meetings,” she said. “To what extent the information was sent to parents, I don’t know.”

Popert added that the issuance of equivalency certificates was always considered to be a temporary measure.

“I didn’t realize it was such a big issue,” she said. “And the fact of the matter is that students are still getting recognition for completing their high school education, and they can still get into higher education.”

Popert noted that students can still register to do year-end testing to earn their full diploma, if they choose, though she wasn’t aware if any KSB students had successfully done this.

The school board said that since 2014-15, 99 students have completed their Secondary 5 studies through the KSB. Of that group, 92 were issued equivalence certificates, while seven received diplomas of secondary studies.

The KSB said the seven diplomas all appear to have been handed out in its Adult Education sector.

The attestations of equivalence allow students to go on to study at John Abbott and Montmorency CEGEPs in the Montreal area, which have agreements in place with the school board.

Popert said she’s not aware of KSB students applying to and being denied entry to other post-secondary institutions.

For its part, Quebec’s education department has offered different numbers; Education Minister Sébastien Proulx told a parliamentary committee that 26 KSB students received secondary studies diplomas last year.

The department has yet to respond to Nunatsiaq News’ request for information on the KSB’s curriculum file.

“We need someone to dedicate their time to let us know if the curriculum is acceptable,” Popert said. “If not—then let us know what else we have to do.

“If it’s acceptable, then we need to start receiving the diplomas again.”