Full-day kindergarten pilot project coming to 5 Nunavut schools
Iqaluit, Chesterfield Inlet, Kimmirut, Kugluktuk and Whale Cove schools to participate
Education Minister Pamela Gross is seen here in this 2022 file photo. The Department of Education is rolling out a full-day kindergarten pilot project in five Nunavut schools this fall. (File photo by David Venn)
Five Nunavut schools will implement full-day kindergarten this fall as part of a Department of Education pilot project, the GN announced Monday.
The new kindergarten format will run at the following schools: Nanook School in Iqaluit, Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet, Qaqqalik School in Kimmirut, Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik School in Kugluktuk and Inuglak School in Whale Cove.
The pilot project is being done to confirm resources that would be needed to support a full-day program and to test the program to see how it stands up to real-life scenarios.
The Department of Education said it will seek feedback and suggestions for improvements based on the results of the pilot project and use that to determine whether full-day kindergarten should be implemented across the territory.
The participating schools were chosen based on the amount of renovations each would require to support the program, and to represent Nunavut’s regions.
“We believe in the value of offering full-day kindergarten to support development and early language acquisition for our students, and to increase the options and opportunities for working parents and families,” said Education Minister Pamela Gross in a statement.
This should help increase graduation amd attendance rates?
The purpose is to make life easier for working parents. It is less difficult to find care for a couple hours at the end of the day than for half the day.
here she goes again taking credit for someone elses idea •insert eye roll•
blah blah blah
All politicians do this. Municipal, Territorial, Federal. Nobody comes up with these things on their own, they have staff, lobby groups, the public etc. I challenge you to find a single idea that any politicians has brought to the table without outside influence. I am not defending the Minister, but it is a pretty easy idea to say yes to, and I will give her credit for supporting something that actually has some logic to it.
With more and more children entering Grade 2, 3, 4 unable to read, write or count past ten, it’s troubling, as if not happening.
While the children who can count, read, write from Grade 2 through to high-school must sit and do nothing day after day when finished all of their school work.
Unchallenged because the teacher must focus on the kids who are disruptive, won’t do assignments, and who seldom attend school. Plus give their attention to the large number of kids who require tons more help because they are so far behind with reading, math, writing and how to do projects.
Unfortunately, Nunavut schools continue to put all the kids together in one class. Short changing the more educated kids and shortchanging the kids who need more help. This is nothing new. The 3 monkey schooling that automatically dumps kids to the next grade if knows subjects or not. Mind-bored the rest. Sees nothing but roses.
Is this why full-time kindergarten is now happening? To ignore the obvious? No wonder parents move south or homeschool their kids.
hurt cause are not the unruly children, root cause of people not doing well in school is poverty, it’s a viscous cycle, kids go hungry because Nunavut has a high rate of poverty, so parents themself experience poverty so they didn’t learn anything school. People always blame the victims, what about the teachers that don’t understand what their students are going through, I remember one of the teachers in Grade 4 use to separate us and point at the non Inuit kids and say why can’t you guys be more like them?
I’m so happy my daughter gets to go to full day kindergarten next fall. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity for my panik.
Please train Language Specialists that are teaching wuthout teaching certificates. Kindergartens kids will continue to lose the learning they deserve.
What i want to see is next year in ALL grade one classes do assessments at the beginning of the year to see the level of Inuktitut, English, Math all across Nunavut. Then do this again for grade one at the start of the following year. Will the extra half day in school increase the education level in those communities compared to the rest of Nunavut?
This should not be about getting half a year extra of free daycare (what is an extra half year compared to the other 12 full years we already get of free child care… minus summers and when the schools close due to fuel spills or burn down) . It should be about getting our educated young a step up.