Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 08/98) - One possible path to a steady teaching workforce in the North could be the Teacher Education Program offered in most Aurora College and Arctic College campuses.

Education Minister Charles Dent said in 1992, there were 146 aboriginal teachers in the school system. By the year 1999, more than 355 aboriginal teachers should be working in the NWT.

The current Teacher Education Programs end in 1999. A new program will replace it in hopes of further increasing the number of aboriginal teachers in the NWT.

"Right now 36 per cent of the teachers in Nunavut are aboriginal, while 18 per cent in the West are aboriginal," said Dent.

"The new strategy will help us move toward 85 per cent aboriginal teachers in Nunavut and 47 per cent in the western NWT. This will result in a teaching force that is truly representative of the population in the two new territories," said Dent.

The new strategy will be based on the success of the current one. TEPs will continue to be delivered in communities and not just at college campuses.

The strategy calls for a full-time bachelor of education program in the western NWT. Proposals also include looking at part-time studies so teachers could continue their studies while they work.

The strategy also calls for the delivery of the Aboriginal Language Certificate Program to ensure all schools reflect local culture and language.