New Education Act concerns DEA, union

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

The elected education body that represents parents in Iqaluit is worried that the proposed Education Act, which received second reading in the legislature last month, gives a dangerous level of control to the minister of education.

“As it is now, the only thing we can do without the approval of the minister is ensure kids attend school,” said Kathy Smith, chairperson of the Iqaluit District Education Authority.

“The new act takes all those responsibilities previously given to DEAs and gives them ministerial control.”

Smith’s main concern, however, is that changes to the 70-page document have not been clearly identified. “We have to sit down with the old and new acts and go section-by-section and pick out the changes,” she said.

“The old and new acts are both legal documents and they’re written in legal-speak.”

Changes the group has identified were outlined in a newsletter distributed to parents in Iqaluit last month.

The new act says schools must teach Inuktitut as a second language. The old act gave parents and students a choice between Inuktitut and French. The department of education provides no second language funding, and FSL programs are currently funded by a grant from Heritage Canada that pays for French teachers.

No second-language funding?

The new act makes no provisions for funding teachers for Inuktitut as a second language. “Where are we getting the funding and where are we getting the teachers?” Smith asked. “The only way we would be able to do it is to pull out classroom teachers.”

It says that children between the ages of five and 18 must be enrolled in school (the old act said six and 16).

“[Eighteen] year olds that have not graduated from high school will by law be required to attend school,” the newsletter said. “This will place a very heavy burden on parents of students who do not wish to continue their education. Please note the age at which a person can leave their parent’s home is 16.”

The new act also changes the phrase “peer group” to “age group,” introducing the notion of social promotion, which says that rather than repeating a grade, students should advance with other students of their age group. “Students will move on to the next grade with their age group regardless of their skills and abilities,” the newsletter says.

In addition, the new act says that use of school facilities for communities will be at the minister’s discretion. This takes a key part of community decision-making away from a local body and gives it to a territorial cabinet minister.

“I don’t see the minister of education really worrying about what happens in Grise Fiord in gym, but the minister is responsible for everything that goes on in education in Nunavut,” said Lou Budgell, president of the Nunavut Federation of Teachers, which also has concerns with the proposed act.

Discipline issues?

The federation and the IDEA are both concerned that the authority to suspend a student is taken away from principals in the new act and may happen only after consultation with the DEA, school counsellor and the student’s parent.

“In the new bill, principals will only be able to suspend a student who poses a safety hazard to students or staff,” Budgell said. “So a student can come to school drunk, and you can’t suspend him.”

The new act says students should be part of DEAs, but some items at DEA meetings are confidential and concern other students, Budgell said. “Do they have the maturity to make decisions regarding other students and not spread that information around?”

It says that Individual Education Programs, plans written for students whose needs are not being met by the system-wide program, are for kids who may be academically challenged.

“Anybody who is gifted has not been taken into consideration,” Budgell said. “It does not even anticipate that there are even gifted kids out there.”

But, he said, changing the age at which students must attend school only brings Nunavut in line with other provinces in Canada. And the increase in students that the change would create is taken into account by an additional $2.8 million in the 2002-3 education budget to hire new teachers.

And the authority taken away from DEAs and given to the minister only centralizes that authority in a Nunavut-wide body. The territory’s 26 DEAs are each individual bodies.

There is no person or organization who represents them across Nunavut.

Smith admitted that she’s not sure where other DEAs stand on changes to the Education Act — or if they have even read it.

“We’re a volunteer board — an elected board, but we all volunteer our time,” she said.