Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Whale Cove (Apr 07/04) - A total of 12 students at Inuglak school in Whale Cove received an early introduction into workplace safety this past month.

The students were also introduced to the proper way of dealing with hazardous materials in the workplace.

The three-day course was delivered by Marvin Newsome of the Worker's Compensation Board (WCB).

Inuglak school principal Sidney Rodnunsky says the students came from Grade 9, 10 and 11.

He says the 12 who completed the course (Lavenia Voisey, Rachel Misheralak, Lazarus Teenar, Roger Sammurtok, Darryl Adjuk, Max Anguk, Corey Panika, Mona Panika, Bobby Misheralak, Germaine Ekwalak, Florentine Voisey and Terrie-Rose Tenner) were impressed with its content and the manner in which it was delivered.

"We treated this as a fully adult seminar and it was delivered on an adult basis, which the students seemed to appreciate," says Rodnunsky.

"The students passed two government exams and were quite pleased to receive their workplace-safety certificates and wallet cards to note their accomplishments.

"They also received one senior high credit each."

Rodnunsky says staff at the school had been trying to arrange the course for the past two years.

He says judging by the feedback he's received from the students who took the course, it was well worth the wait.

"The students thought it was an excellent course and they now realize how important it is to handle materials safely in the workplace.

"Some of the information films were quite graphic and rightly so.

"You have to learn from the mistakes you see people making in the films so you don't make the same mistakes they did."

Rodnunsky says he'd recommend the course to other schools in the Kivalliq region, as long as they were delivered to the same age group.

He says there was no charge to the school for the course, with the WCB picking up the tab.

"You only have to look at the statistics to realize how valuable a course like this is to our students.

"During the year 2001, in the 14 to 25 age group, there were 57 deaths and 65,000 injuries on the job in Canada.

"Those statistics pretty much say it all as to the importance of the course."