Nunavut MLA questions lack of assessments in territory’s schools

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell says he wants to know when a student assessment system, focusing on math and English, will be finalized for Nunavut students and “put to good use.”

Eva Aariak, Nunavut premier and minister of education, told Schell May 8 in the Nunavut legislature that this assessment is being worked on.

“If a student needs extra help, the teacher or parent will know that and get together to make a plan [in the meantime],” Aariak said. “The assessment to some degree is still happening.”

A day earlier in the legislature, May 7, Schell brought up similar concerns, saying that “from my own personal observations of my daughter’s classmates, it is quite clear to me that in one single grade, there are children who can read very well, children who can barely read, and children who cannot read at all,” he said.

“I don’t need a formal assessment to tell me that,” Schell added.

“It is clear that if a student is not meeting the established grade levels for reading or math, then they need the appropriate support to reach that level,” Schell said.

The results of Nunavut assessments in language arts could help to determine the need for adequate resources, materials, and staff to meet individualized program requirements, he said.

Schell asked how students’ needs will be accounted for in the department’s budget once the assessment system is up and running.

“The assessment tools, as I said, are being worked on and once all that is completed, I will be in a better position to tell the member exactly what it entails,” Aariak said.

The Department of Education has plans to do an “information campaign” so that everyone, especially the parents who have children in the schools, know what is in place,” she said.

During the last sitting of the legislature, Schell questioned the social promotion of students in GN schools, saying that moving students in Nunavut schools from one grade to the next isn’t helping them.