Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (May 27/98) - Violet Twyee had never before been to school.

But that didn't stop her, at 58, from getting an education so that she could teach others the importance of staying in school.

Recently presented with a territorial literacy recognition award, Twyee is studying to become a literacy instructor at Maani Ulujuk Illiniarvik high school in Rankin Inlet. She is in her second year of the Workplace Program at Nunavut Arctic College in the community.

"I never went to school," she said. "I only went to Sunday school. I learned to write Inuktitut when I was a young girl from my mom and my sisters."

Twyee, a mother of eight, has wanted to go to school and upgrade her skills since she was in Sunday school, where she received most of her skills in English and Inuktitut.

"There weren't any schools when I was young," she said. "There were only priests, police and shopkeepers. I never thought I would ever be able to go to school."

While she doesn't have too much spare time between school and working at Kivalliq Hall as a supervisor and cook's helper, she likes to remind people that it's never too late to go back to school and take advantage of the college's programs.

"When I was working at the hotel, I used to hear people say they wanted to go back to school, but didn't want to go back to high school," she said. "Now Arctic College is there ... it's open to everybody."

Mariah Aliyak, Twyee's Inuktitut keyboarding teacher, said that she is a role model for people of all ages.

"She tells the elders to learn because it's so much fun learning," she said. "She thought that her learning would stop at a certain age, but now she knows learning doesn't stop."

Expected to finish her program at Nunavut Arctic College in less than a week, Twyee said she will continue her studies if she doesn't get a job right away.

"I'll just keep learning and learning ... you're never too old to learn."