Report outlines shortcomings at Nunavut Arctic College

SARA MINOGUE

Nunavut Arctic College has not been meeting the needs of Nunavummiut, due to “ineffective management, a lack of accountability and inadequate funding,” according to a consultant’s report.

The report, called Aaqqigiarniq or Time to Move Forward, was presented to Education Minister Ed Picco in October 2004. It points out several shortcomings at the college and makes 75 recommendations for improvements.

The document came to light when Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson noticed it was mentioned in budget documents that the members were reviewing on March 1.

Picco said the report itself was a “private document” which he’d ordered when he first became education minister. He tabled the executive summary in the legislature.

Picco pointed out that 48 per cent of the recommendations in the report had already been completed or begun, and that work was underway to pursue the outstanding recommendations.

Nonetheless, the report paints a bleak picture of Nunavut’s only post-secondary school.

Communication between staff and college managers is “almost non-existent” and the college is not listening to its many stakeholders, the report says. That includes people in the communities as well as employers who are looking for graduates with specific qualifications and skills.

The report suggests regular meetings with Inuit organizations as well as government departments and communities.

Staff interviewed for the report said the college is ignoring its obligation to hire Inuit under Article 23 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Staff are also concerned that Inuit culture is not incorporated into college life.

To change this, the report recommends the college create a policy that supports Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun as languages of instruction. Classes in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun should be requirements for all programs, either as a first or second language.

The college should also increase the number of Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun language instructors across the territory, the report says.

Elders should be hired to incorporate more Inuit culture into college programming, especially in the communities.

The college should not waste resources on building maintenance and capital planning the report says. Instead, it recommends transferring ownership of college infrastructure to the Department of Community and Government Services and making the Nunavut Housing Corp. responsible for housing students.

Finances are an ongoing challenge.

Financial statements for the Crown corporation showed a deficit of $785,000 in June 2003. The latest annual report, tabled in the legislative assembly on Feb. 28, shows that the deficit grew more than twice that size, to $1,613,000, by June 2004. That’s about seven per cent of the total operating budget this year.

Last fall, the legislative assembly agreed to give the college $1.3 million in one-time supplementary appropriations. Last December, college president Mac Clendenning told Nunatsiaq News that he was “confident” the deficit could be eliminated by the end of the current fiscal year.

The report suggested the college build a marketing strategy to find third-party funding from the Government of Nunavut, something the college president is already working towards.

The report made several other recommendations of things the college should do:

* Improve prior learning assessments, so that students entering the college are not repeating material they already know, or enrolling in courses for which they aren’t qualified;
* Clarify the role of the Nunavut Research Institute, and coordinate activities that overlap;
* Interview graduates and dropouts to gauge the success of its programs and see how student life could be improved;
* Form an IQ committee;
* Offer Inuktitut courses to all staff.

It was not all bad news, however. The report says that the college has a “dedicated and committed” staff. It also singles out the Nunavut teacher education program and the nursing program as success stories that should be repeated in other fields.

The report recognized the success of the Inuit studies program, which has made the college a world leader in the field, but points out that administration has done little to support the staff who make this program possible.