Nunavut DEAs want action on Auditor General’s education, school safety findings

In an undated file photo, students leave Iqaluit’s Nakasuk School at the end of the day. The Coalition of Nunavut DEAs wants the Nunavut government to create an action plan for fixing the territory’s school system. (FILE PHOTO)

The Coalition of Nunavut District Education Authorities wants the territorial government to create an action plan with timelines to fix the problems exposed in the Auditor-General of Canada’s recent reports on education and school safety.

The auditor-general’s report on education, released Nov. 19, found the Department of Education will not meet the 2008 Education Act goal of creating a bilingual Inuktitut-English school system by 2019-20.

The safety report found numerous deficiencies in the inspection of schools and daycares and how the Department of Community Government Services responds to safety inspection reports.

“There are a number of issues raised by the Auditor General of Canada on education in Nunavut that reflect what the DEAs have been raising for years now,” Willie Nakoolak, chair of the Nunavut Coalition of District Education Authorities, said in a Nov. 25 news release.

That includes:

• the lack of qualified instructors of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun:

• passing students from one grade to the next even if they haven’t mastered required material – known as social promotion;

• the need for parents to support kids in school; and

• the need for more resources to help special needs students.

Nakoolak said the coalition is “encouraged” that Premier Peter Taptuna has promised to end social promotion.

But he added that “the process of change begins with better consultation with DEAs, parents and school officials on how the Department of Education assesses and promotes students.”

The department did not consult with the coalition before it issued its most recent directive on social promotion, he said, “and this is only adding to DEA concerns on how students are promoted.”

The DEAs share the same goal as the Department of Education, he added.

“We want to improve education so we can graduate more students,” he said. “The Auditor-General has given us some objective advice on how to make improvements, so let’s build on this.”

Nakoolak called on Taptuna and Paul Quassa, the minister of education, to create an action plan that will enact the changes recommended in Auditor-General Michael Ferguson’s reports.

When the legislative assembly’s standing committee on government operations and public accounts reviews the Auditor-General’s report next year, the DEA will appear before them, the news released said.