For IDEA, Inuktitut as important as French

Now that Nakasuk School is getting close to choosing a bilingual language of instruction model, the Iqaluit District Education Authority is thinking more and more about Inuktitut language issues in schools.

But at the same time, the IDEA is also working to create French immersion programming in Iqaluit.

That gave education authority member Katherine Trumper the idea of using some of the funding available for French immersion programming to hire a staff member to coordinate language issues, spending half of their time working on French and half on Inuktitut.

The Department of Education already has federal funding earmarked for French immersion programming that could be used for the position. The IDEA’s plan is to ask the education department for similar funding for Inuktitut, so that the IDEA can ensure that the Government of Nunavut’s bilingual education strategy is implemented.

“All they can say is no,” Trumper said. “And if they say no, it really exposes the weaknesses of [the bilingual education] strategy, because a strategy requires resources.

“Iqaluit is the only community affected by French immersion, so let’s see if we can garner some of these resources to support Inuktitut.”

All of the IDEA members supported the idea.

IDEA Chair Christa Kunuk said she had felt the stress of working on two language issues.

“I’d rather be working on Inuktitut, but we can’t allow French immersion to just slip by.”

The IDEA is also preparing to strike a languages subcommittee to deal with language issues. They also plan to hold a special meeting on language issues at the end of April.