Who’s funding bilingual education?

Bilingual education was a hot topic at the Iqaluit District Education Authority’s meeting this past Monday evening.

Nakasuk School plans to introduce a bilingual education program this fall. The goal is to produce students competent in both languages, and put a stop to the situation where parents choose the English stream for their kids, not because they don’t want Inuktitut, but because they don’t want their kids to suffer when they make the sudden switch to English in the later grades.

Nakasuk is also working on “language nests” for preschoolers. These are intense half-day language sessions with elders that help ensure children already have strong Inuktitut skills before they show up at kindergarten.

“If you come without at least a beginning knowledge of the language, it’s a game of catch-up,” said school principal, Carol Horn. From that point on, these students need remedial education, and serious interventions throughout their school careers.

The only problem with the plan is that Nakasuk’s bilingual education program has received no funding and little attention from the Government of Nunavut, in spite of the fact that Nakasuk is following the Nunavut Bilingual Education Strategy the GN released in 2004.

Fed up with the lack of response from the department of education, the IDEA resolved to decide, in another meeting, whether to develop their own strategy to implement the bilingual education strategy, or to find a new way to highlight the need for funding.

“We have to think of a creative way to get the message across…” said IDEA member Karliin Aariak.

“…Not do their work for them,” said Christa Kunuk, the IDEA’s chair.