Is Nunavut cheating youth out of a good education?

I read with disbelief the item “Nunavut schools dodge national science test.”

In my 50 years of living in this community, I have never seen an outright admission by a senior educator that northern students don’t measure up. Here, we have it in writing.

Why are northern students denied the same opportunities as students in the South, to learn subjects that affect all who live in Canada? Why can’t they learn about farming issues and industrial activities? What has language got to do with anything academic?

Surely, the aim of this education system is to equip students with skills that will enable them to live and work anywhere in Canada.

During the many years that I have lived here, I have asked hundreds of kids the same question: how’s school going?

I always get the same answer: “Oh fine.”

“Do you like school?”

“Yes.”

“What is your favourite subject?”

“Math.”

“What is your next favourite?”

“Science.”

“How about English?”

“No way!”

I have asked these same questions, time and time again, and that is always the same response.

What about all the excitement surrounding the student science fairs? And the kids who compete in them all across Nunavut, are they not to be given the same opportunities all across Nunavut? Are they not to be given the same opportunities as all other students in Canada?

I have met many students from the North who, as graduates from the system, have entered the university only to find the subjects of physics, science, calculus and biology were way beyond their comprehension, or that these were subjects that had never been taught.

Many gave up and returned, disillusioned.

Why does the education system fail to equip the youth in its care? Why does it not provide them with a comprehensive and worthwhile education that is universal in nature and not limited to the second-rate standards that the assistant deputy minister suggests is the norm for Nunavut?

If Nunavut is ever going to get its act together, then every student must be given the opportunity to compete in the big wide world, and that means setting the highest standards possible.

Never underestimate the determination, the quality, and the skills of Nunavut’s youth.

Bryan R. Pearson
Iqaluit