Funding cut threatens literacy council

JOHN THOMPSON

The Nunavut Literacy Council may close its doors by this spring, after the federal government announced last week it will cut all adult literacy funding to the provinces and territories.

“It’s key. It’s essential to everything we do,” executive director Kim Crockatt said of the funding, received until now from the National Literacy Program.

“I think it’s appalling that the federal government would make this unilateral decision, without any consultation.”

The cuts are part of the government’s plans to save $1 billion over the next two years, by chopping over a dozen programs from the federal budget.

Since 1999, Crockatt said the council has trained more than 650 adults to teach and encourage others to read. That training led to the creation of dozens of literacy projects around Nunavut.

Some focused on reading in Inuktitut, while others on English, depending on interest in each community, Crockatt said.

The Nunavut Literacy Council uses more than $250,000 in funding from the National Literacy Program for this training, and to develop reading materials to support these initiatives.

Literacy funding for Nunavut Arctic College is also affected by the cuts, Crockatt said.

Adult literacy is a major obstacle to implementing the Nunavut land claims agreement, Crockatt said, because many Inuit are unable to read or write at a sufficient level to work in government.

A study done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005 found that half of those surveyed in Nunavut lacked the necessary skills of reading, writing and working with numbers to function properly in a government job.

A similar study done by the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics found 88 per cent of Inuit scored below the needed literacy level for government work. Almost 30 per cent of non-Inuit scored in the same category.

What could be more troubling is over 80 per cent of Nunavut’s youth scored below the needed literacy level for employment in government.

And over 60 per cent of those already employed in Nunavut have inadequate reading and writing skills. Not surprisingly, the report suggests those people will be less satisfied with their work, and more likely to make mistakes.

Crockatt is encouraging concerned residents to contact their MP, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, as well as the prime minister, to call for a reinstatement of the literacy funds. More information is available at the council’s website, at www.nunavutliteracy.ca.