Nunavut MLA suggests IQ camping trips may be a waste of time

Isaac Shooyook, MLA for Quttiktut, questioned the government March 16 about Nunavut’s failure to produce high school graduates “up to par with the rest of Canada.” (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Isaac Shooyook, MLA for the High Arctic riding of Quttiktuq, wants the Nunavut government to look at whether its policy on Inuit traditional knowledge in schools is actually helping or harming students’ success after graduation.

Land-based camps in the spring are supposed to teach Nunavut high school students about Inuit traditional knowledge.

But Shooyook asked in the legislative assembly March 16 if those camps are one reason why Nunavut students are doing so poorly compared with students across Canada.

“Students are sent out hunting for a whole week, or fishing for a whole week,” the elder MLA said.

“In May, in our community [Arctic Bay] they camp in tents near our community, and the students take turns going there for a whole week, in Grade 12.”

Shooyook told Education Minister Paul Quassa that Nunavut students are clearly not on par with “the rest of the country” once they graduate high school.

“Is it because they are missing school a lot, or is it because of the curriculum?” he asked Quassa.

“We hear they graduate. However, their learning is not on par. So I’m asking, what is the problem?”

Land-based camps are part of the government’s policy of including Inuit traditional knowledge, or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in education.

Shooyook has repeatedly questioned the government’s stated commitment to use IQ in its departments. Lack of clear answers led him to walk out of the legislative assembly March 5.

He wondered, March 16, if the Department of Education’s land camps for Grade 12 students are doing more harm than good.

“When students are outside the classroom, spending a week somewhere, and not writing anything down in their school books — is that one of the reasons why they’re lagging behind? They’re not in the actual classroom?”

Quassa reminded Shooyook that the government has acknowledged publicly that student attendance rates are known to be low, and drop-out rates high.

“We’re trying to do some serious things about that,” he said, pointing to his department’s introduction of new literacy and math programs, and its campaign to encourage parents “to be more involved in their children’s education.”

High drop-out rates are just a part of the problem, he said.

“If our students are going to go anywhere to further their education, for example in the south, the level of education has to be the same,” Quassa said.

“The strength of their education has to be the same as everybody else, no matter where that student moves, when they’ve finished Grade 12.”

The government wants to make that happen, he said.

The land-based camps are part of the department’s policy “to follow Inuit traditional knowledge” and “Inuit societal values,” he said.

“Hunting is part of it. So in springtime when it’s nice enough to live in a tent, that is what we do, for one week or two weeks, if necessary,” Quassa said.

“We’ve set those times aside for that purpose. To get back to the land,” and understand the Inuit way of communicating and learning, he said.

“They don’t lose any school time with the camp activity in the springtime. That is part of their curriculum.”

After question period, Shooyook gave notice that he intends to table a motion at the start of the next sitting of the assembly, May 26, “that the legislative assembly establish a standing committee on Inuit societal values and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.”

He said Pauloosie Keyootak, MLA for Uqaummiut and newest member of the assembly, will second the motion.