New legislation raises serious questions about availability of teachers, support staff, money

The big question raised by Nunavut's new Education Act is whether schools will be given enough teachers, support staff and money to achieve the act's ambitious goals.

A bilingual education system by 2019, more help for kids with learning problems, smaller class sizes, and a counsellor for every school are among the changes proposed in the draft law, tabled by Ed Picco, the education minister, Nov. 6.

The act also promises to make Nunavut schools culturally relevant to Inuit students. Schools are expected to fall in line with traditional knowledge. Elders are given official status as special instructors and a pay raise, to acknowledge "they have a masters degree in Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit," Picco said.

Picco proposes to spend an additional $14 million on education each year if the act is passed. That would increase education spending by more than 10 per cent a year – $120 million is being spent on the school system in 2007-8.

Some of that money would go to hiring more teaching staff, Picco said, although he won't say how much. That leaves some school principals wondering how they will implement some proposed changes, such as a requirement to keep suspended students in school, if "practical."

Right now it's not. Few schools have spare staff to supervise misbehaving kids. Teachers are busy teaching. Some schools don't have a spare room, either, to send disobedient kids.

Yet in-school suspensions are important, Picco says, because suspended kids often drift away from school and eventually drop out.

Suspensions are seen as holidays by some kids, who may spend the time off playing video games and smoking marijuana, rather than studying.

Picco says some of the promised money would pay for elders or teaching assistants to work with these kids in school. Exactly how that money would be spent would be decided by district education authorities.

Only 30 per cent of students in Nunavut graduate from high school. The rest drop out.

Before kids drop out, they often misbehave. Often this is because they have trouble understanding what's being taught after Grade 4, when Inuktitut instruction ends.

As a result, kids slip further behind in their studies each year, until they hit Grade 10, when the Alberta curriculum is enforced, and many kids fail. The system sets many kids up to lose, Thomas Berger noted in his report on the implementation of the Nunavut land claim.

The draft law calls for bilingual instruction from kindergarten to Grade 12 by 2019. To do this, Nunavut needs about 200 more Inuit teachers, Picco said.

But he will almost certainly need more Inuit teachers than that. Picco's figure does not take into account that the first generation of Inuit teachers are retiring, and new Inuit teachers continue to be poached by the Government of Nunavut and Inuit associations, who are eager to fill their offices with qualified Inuit.

Jimmy Jacquard, president of the Nunavut Teachers Association, warns that unless Nunavut pays Inuit teachers more competitive salaries, and provides a better deal on staff housing, "I can ensure you that we will have many less Inuit teachers in our classes very soon, as well as non-Inuit."

As well, many of these new Inuit teachers will need to be trained to teach high school. Almost all of the territory's existing 262 Inuit teachers are only qualified to teach elementary subjects. Picco said "you can count on your hand" the number of Inuit teachers who currently work in high schools.

He admits more money will have to be spent on the Nunavut Teacher Education Program to meet his goal. His department also plans to launch a campaign to recruit Inuit teachers.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. has pushed for the government to make classes 80 per cent Inuktitut and 20 per cent English. Picco's goal is more modest: to make half of classes taught in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun and half in English.

The goal to train 200 Inuit teachers is also less ambitious than an earlier plan, announced last spring, to train 300 Inuit teachers by 2012. That plan, which would have cost $16.5 million each year, never found political support and apparently died.

The new act also addresses some obvious shortcomings of the school system. Cultural orientation for new teachers would be mandatory, for example.

At present new teachers may not be told the bare essentials of Inuit culture before starting work. As a result, when classes begin they may not know that when a child raises her eyebrows, she is saying yes, and when she wrinkles her nose, she is saying no.

Thirteen of Nunavut's 42 schools have no counsellor. Picco proposes to give each school one.

Students would also receive daily physical exercise for at least 20 minutes under the new act.

District education authorities would receive more money and support under the draft law. Of the $14 million boost to the school system, $1 million would go to DEAs, Picco said.

That money would help set up a new group to represent DEAs across the territory, which Picco compared to the Nunavut Association of Municipalities.

DEAs would be involved in setting each school's cultural programs, and alternative measures for suspensions. But they will not be able to hire and fire teachers, as they have demanded in the past.

The new act reassures teachers that they are employees of the government, and not employees of their respective district education authorities.