Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 24/99) - When all of the little Annie's and Pauloosie's across the Baffin region belly up to their desks next fall, there will be a whole new support network in place at their schools.

It's all because of a $1 million, one-year deal negotiated between the Baffin Divisional Education Council and the Kakivak Association.

"The idea came up that perhaps we should be looking at the younger beneficiaries and how we can support them," said Kakivak's chief executive officer Pat Angnakak of the route her board wanted to take.

"We've spent a lot of money for the older beneficiaries. We should be doing our part in promoting and supporting students to stay in school so they can be self-sufficient."

Angnakak said she contacted Lorne Levy, the fundraiser and assistant director of the education board, and told him they had $1 million to hand over for different kinds of programming.

As could be expected, Levy was jubilant and, after extensive meetings and consultations with teachers around Nunavut, it was decided that the money would best be spent on hiring 17 elders, 10 additional classroom support assistants and two regional student support consultants.

To be split across the 22 schools in the Baffin, the 17 elders will act as go-betweens with the consultants and the community. They will also bring a strong community presence into the classrooms and ensure that crucial traditional and cultural components are present in education.

"An Inuit presence needed to be stronger. We talked about having elders come into the schools and offering their wisdom, their ideas, their sense of what schooling is about," said Levy.

The addition of 10 more classroom support assistants will bring the total number in the region up to 46, all of whom will be given an approximate 20 per cent pay hike. Levy said the increase in both pay and support staff numbers was long overdue, particularly since, due to funding shortfalls last year, only about half of the requests for support could be filled. Angnakak said the two regional student support consultants would travel to all 14 communities and help in assessing children's learning patterns while providing support to the teachers themselves.

"We have so many kids in school that have different sorts of learning disabilities and some just learn in a different way than most kids learn. We need someone to come in and address those kids and their concerns, just to have the opportunity to have someone trained come in and help the teachers," said Angnakak. To make sure that the programs are running smoothly and that Kakivak's money is being spent wisely, Angnakak and her board will watch over and evaluate the school year. If all goes according to plan, she said there was the possibility of renewing the agreement.

She explained that her board felt strongly that they needed to be begin to form partnerships and become more involved in the education of their youth. "We have to start working together. We can't say we're not the education board, so too bad. We all represent the same beneficiaries, the same people in the communities. We have to get the best bang for our buck."