Malcom Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Feb 01/02) - Availability and programming were common themes during a recent discussion on teacher education within the NWT.

The occasion included a presentation made by Dr. Jeff Orr and Harold Schultz Jan. 18 during the regular council meeting of the Beaufort Delta Education Council.

Orr and Schultz are part of a team working on a report as part of a NWT-wide review of teacher education, entitled "Building capacity, a proposal for expanding the Aurora College teacher education program."

Orr is associate professor of education at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. Schultz is past director of the Northern Teacher Education Program in northern Saskatchewan.

Orr explained that aside from a short visit to Fort Smith, their trip to the Delta was their "first real taste of the North." Both spent several days talking with people in the area, including BDEC school principals and Aurora College staff.

"Despite the fact we're just beginning," Orr explained, "we're finding out some very interesting and common things that people have concerns about with regards to the programming for teacher education."

Orr said one thing he's heard "loud and clear from people" is that programming should be offered within the Beaufort Delta, and on a consistent basis.

Up until two years ago the Inuvik campus of Aurora College offered a two-year TEP, at the end of which graduates received teaching certificates.

Last year a special third year was offered to allow teachers to brush up on their skills, in preparation for the revised TEP, which began last September.

TEP is being offered in Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. Students take three years within the NWT, after which they can transfer to the University of Saskatchewan for one year to graduate with a bachelor of education degree.

Orr pointed out that a 1998 GNWT report recommended that the fourth year within TEP be offered in the NWT.

He said people have been telling him this would be a good idea, but that students should have a choice about where they take their fourth year.

"We think teacher education should have a permanent presence here from what we're hearing from the grads and from people in the communities," Orr said.

Orr explained he's also heard concerns about the make up of TEP programming, specifically about whether it suits the North or should have more cultural emphasis.

"Right now in the TEP program there is no required course in language," Orr said. "We are very unclear about what the region really wants with regards to language programming."

Financial aspects

Much discussion occurred as part of Schultz and Orr's presentation. Mary Beckett, chair of the Inuvik District Education Authority, pointed out financial costs are a large barrier for those wanting to take TEP.

Beckett pointed out many potential TEP students are married and have children, thus making it hard to return to school, especially if they have to leave their home community.

"To me it's not going to be a really effective program until the finances are better," Beckett said.

Another Inuvik DEA member, Gerri Sharpe-Staples, pointed out, "More often than not, the teachers who are in this program are coming back to be teachers in the community they're from."

BDEC chair Alex Illasiak noted the Delta has made great strides in terms of hiring aboriginal teachers since 1969, when TEP began.

"Some of our communities are 70, 80, 90 per cent aboriginal," Illasiak said.

"We are getting close to 60 to 75 per cent aboriginal in some communities -- not the larger ones, but the medium size ones."

The final report Orr and Schultz are working on is due to the GNWT in June, though an interim report is to be released in late April.