The kids are all right

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Shelly Qamaniq is gnawing on a plastic block when her 20-year-old mother Sheena scoops her off the floor. In one smooth motion, Sheena finds a rocking chair, lifts her T-shirt and places her daughter against her breast to feed her.

The school bell rings and Sheena returns to class, leaving her young daughter to play among the toys in the daycare at Nasivvik School in Pond Inlet.

The facility is one of only three in-school daycares in the Baffin region helping young parents — especially teen mothers — stay in school. Qamaniq dropped out to have her baby more than a year ago. She returned because Nasivvik offered affordable, convenient and quality child-care.

The Kitikmeot or Kivalliq regions have 14 daycares, but none are in schools or designed specifically with teen mothers in mind, says Leslie Leafloor, early childhood officer with the department of education.

“We have a tremendous advantage,” says Linda Rose, manager of the Nasivvik daycare. “We get to use the school’s gym and go to the library. Mothers can drop in and breastfeed their babies at recess. It’s wonderful.”

Such convenience is helping more young moms graduate high school. Four teenage mothers have completed Grade 12 at Nasivvik in the past two years. The Kakivak Association and the department of education’s early childhood program help mothers with no income pay the $30-a-day ($600 a month) fee. Mothers and families with some income pay based on their monthly earnings.

Deena Ootoovak, 19, graduated from Nasivvik a year ago. She is now completing her first year of a nursing program at Arctic College’s Nunatta campus in Iqaluit. While she studies bones and blood in the capital, her two-year-old son Judah stays in Pond Inlet. Even though Ootoovak is no longer a high school student, her son remains eligible to attend the daycare.

“I’d call Deena a success story. Our number one priority is the high school students first. If there’s still room, we open it up to past graduates who have gone on to study. After that, if there’s still room, we open it up to staff with children,” Rose says.

The eight children attending Nasivvik daycare range in age from six months to six years old. Ayla Jacquard, 3, is the only child whose parents work as teachers at the school.

Most parents are teen moms, although single teen fathers have enrolled children in the past, Rose says.

The daycare has been part of the high school since it opened in 1999. Nasivvik is one of two daycare facilities in Pond Inlet and is licenced to hold 10 children.

Starting salary for the two Inuktitut-speaking staff members is $15 an hour. Rose says staff retention hasn’t been a problem. An early childhood education student recently joined the team as part of her school practicum.

Daycares in Nunavut have had their share of troubles. Two years ago, debate erupted in the legislative assembly over the failure to pay and retain qualified staff. The department of education, then under James Arvaluk, said daycare dollars were not being tapped into. Daycare workers responded by saying they were overworked, underpaid and had little time for filling out funding requests.

Nunavut’s first daycare report, “Looking Towards the Future,” was tabled in August 2000. Two months later, the Nunavut Inuit Child-Care Planning forum was held in Iqaluit. From the meeting, the Nunavut Inuit Childcare Association was formed. The association is a sounding board for the territory’s 29 licenced daycare facilities. The executive is composed of members from Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, Cape Dorset and Arctic Bay.

Future looks bright

Mary Ellen Milley, director of the Aakuluk daycare in Iqaluit, stepped into her job when the controversy was raging over territorial-wide funding shortfalls and staff turnover. Milley says conditions have progressively improved in Iqaluit since then, in part due to a change in funding formulas and less paper work.

“I find it a lot easier now, financially and staff-wise. As long as you don’t have to worry about payroll, everything is much smoother,” Milley says.

Last week, education minister Peter Kilabuk announced a $470,000 increase to daycare grants, topping up the $1.35-million annual budget to $1.77 million for 2002-3. The budget is still subject to approval in the legislative assembly.

“That kind of financial support is fantastic,” Milley says.

The need for affordable daycares, especially for teen mothers, is longstanding. Statistics Canada’s most recent numbers on teenage pregnancies say northern teens are three times as likely get pregnant than other Canadian teens.

The 1997 stats indicate the teen pregnancy rate in the Northwest Territories was 123 pregnancies per 1,000 teens — almost three times the national average of 42 teen pregnancies per 1,000.

Given the disproportionately high pregnancy rates in the North, affordable daycare is a key service for unemployed single parents who want to go back to school.

And when Sheena Qamaniq graduates, her success will in part be due the in-school daycare service provided at Nasivvik school.

“If the daycare wasn’t here, I don’t know how these girls would finish school,” Rose says.