Iqaluit DEA demands delay in GN’s Education Act changes

VALERIE G. CONNELL

Iqaluit’s District Education Authority wants the Nunavut government to delay introduction of its new Education Act.

DEA chair Kathy Smith said the process of preparing the new act has been plagued by a lack of public consultation and a lack of clarity and information.

“We don’t think it should go through at all. We think it should stop,” she said. “It’s easier if you do it right the first time than to go back and change things.”

The Nunavut Department of Education has been hoping to introduce the Education Act at the February session of the Nunavut legislative assembly in Iqaluit.

The new law would replace the Education Act inherited from the Northwest Territories. The “old” NWT education was passed in 1996.

Smith said if the GN wants a “made-in-Nunavut” education act it should listen to the people of Nunavut.

“This is to be the Nunavut education act supposedly come up with by the people of Nunavut reflecting their needs and wants regarding education,” she said. “We don’t feel the public was properly consulted.”

Though a joint GN-NTI working group held public meetings to gather suggestions for the new act, Smith said they’ve failed to explain what changes they plan to make to the old law, or what the consequences of those changes would be.

Smith said DEA members reviewed the draft act when it came out last March, comparing it to the current act and holding workshops with community members. They sent a list of their concerns to the Department of Education, but never received a response.

Smith condemned the government’s process of gathering input on the proposed act. “I think it was lip service,” she said. “I don’t think consultation was done.”

Smith said written resources were not provided at workshops to help the public understand what the government is changing and why.

Further, she said, when residents brought up issues that concerned them about the schools, government officials weren’t available to provide explanations or answers.

For example, she said, if someone at a public meeting complained that there are too many suspensions in the schools, no one from the Department of Education was present to explain the process of suspensions.

“What we feel is, someone should be leading through this, both old and new, and saying, ‘OK, this is what we’ve changed, this is why we’ve changed it. What do you think?’” Smith said.

“Or they should have someone explain to me, ‘What does this mean to my child? How does it affect education?’ Nothing is clearly laid out. If you go through step-by-step and try to figure it out, nothing is clear.”