Nunavut high school to de-register low attenders

A Nov. 3 letter sent home to parents of students enrolled at John Arnalukjuak high school in Arviat indicates that students who have attended class 40 per cent of the time or less during the first half of the semester won’t be permitted back in class until the start of a new semester, in January 2016. (FILE PHOTO)

Some families in the Nunavut community of Arviat say they’re upset about a new policy that will prevent students with low attendance from attending the local high school for periods of time.

A Nov. 3 letter sent home to parents of students enrolled at John Arnalukjuak High School says students who have attended class 40 per cent of the time or less during the first half of the semester will be de-registered until the new year.

“If you are receiving this letter than [sic] your son or daughter has been taken off of our list and we want to let you know that they can come back to school in January and try again,” reads the letter, signed by the school’s principal, Judy Connor.

“It is always difficult to de-register any student, but when they only come for such a small amount of time, it is very difficult for them to pass their courses or feel part of the school.”

But some parents in the Kivalliq community say the policy pushes out some of the community’s most vulnerable students.

“’Try again in January’ is such a terrible approach,” said a parent with children enrolled at the high school, who spoke to Nunatsiaq News. “A lot of them are going through struggles. Completely removing them from school is damaging to our kids.”

Other parents point out that the note from the principal was sent home in English only, making it difficult for some unilingual Inuktitut-speaking parents to understand.

It’s not yet clear who implemented the policy. Nunatsiaq News was unable to reach Arviat’s District Education Authority, while Nunavut’s department of education could not return the newspaper’s request for information by press-time.

A Department of Education spokesperson only said the department has yet to see the letter.

The letter from John Arnalukjuak high school says that coming to school “on a drop-in basis only leads to frustration and makes learning difficult for the students who come on a regular basis.”

Students with attendance 40 per cent and lower are welcome to come back Jan. 15 to re-register for the remainder of the academic year, the letter said.

Nunavut students must attend at least 40 per cent of instruction time in a given month to be considered “enrolled.”

And that has wider implications, such as on teacher-student ratios and funding at Nunavut’s schools.

When the Department of Education adjusted teacher allocations for the 2015-16 year based on shifting enrollment, John Arnalukjuak was hit hard, losing the equivalent of four full-time teaching positions.