Nunavik schools re-wired to aid hearing impaired

The alarm clocks ring early every morning, and kids are pulling themselves out of bed and running out to the school bus: classes in all schools under the Kativik School Board have started once again.

And, this year, almost every student in Nunavik will be able to follow what goes on during class.

That’s because nearly all the region’s classrooms are equipped with acoustic soundfield systems.

In classrooms equipped with a soundfield, teachers wear a microphone that amplifies their voices in the classroom. Through four speakers located on walls or ceilings, the teacher’s voice is transmitted through the wireless FM unit and amplified evenly throughout the room.

“Even students who don’t have a hearing loss can hear better,” said Hannah Ayukawa, who is the audiologist for Ungava Bay coast communities.

According to Ayukawa, more than 20 per cent of students in Nunavik have some hearing impairment. These can result from repeated ear infections, which can cause holes in the eardrum, scarring and permanent hearing loss.

By age five, 25 per cent of kids have significant hearing loss in one ear and one in 10 have a significant hearing loss in both ears.

The overwhelming majority of students who need special assistance in school have hearing difficulties. Profoundly deaf students have aides who assist them through sign language, but students with less serious hearing loss struggle to understand what teachers are saying.

And before soundfield technology, many simply dropped out.

With the wiring of Kangirsuk’s Sautjuit School for soundfields in August, a total of 82 classrooms along the Ungava coast are hooked up. Only the secondary school in Kangiqsujuaq, Kuujjuaq’s two schools, and schools in Umuijaq and Kuujjuaraapik now lack soundfields.

However, there’s also a need in these communities, said Ayukawa. At Kuujjuaq’s Petakallak School, 29 per cent have hearing loss. At Jaanimmarik School, 13 per cent have a hearing loss: fewer students with hearing loss remain in the higher grades because many drop out.

The cost of installing a soundfield is about $1,500, an amount generally covered by federal Brighter Futures money. Installing the soundfield throughout Kangirsuk’s school cost $29,000.

Ayukawa demonstrated this equipment at KSB teacher orientation sessions in August – and there are many new teachers this year who need to know how to use the equipment.

This year the KSB hired 60 new teachers. This amounts to about 30 per cent of all non-Inuit teachers.

Stiff hiring competition for French-language teachers continued this year, said KSB spokesperson Debbie Astroff, and Kangirsuk is still waiting for a teacher for its secondary French, math and science programs. The majority of the new teachers for the board’s English-language sector come from the Atlantic provinces.

In Salluit, 10 new teachers were hired – about half those from the South decided to quit for the new school year.

Many teachers chose not to return to the community after Hassina Kerfi-Guetteb, 43, an adult education teacher, was shot in the neck on Feb. 25. There are also changes in school administrators in Salluit, with Annie Alaku returning as principal and Charles Roy as vice-principal.

Ivujivik, Aupaluk and Kuujjuaq’s Petakallak School have new principals, while Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq is still looking for a new principal.

The KSB serves about 3,700 students, however, the total number of students registered in each language sector in the KSB won’t be official until Sept. 30.