Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iglulik (Nov 15/99) - Iglulik Mayor Aime Panimera has very definite ideas about what should and should not be included in the school curriculum in his community.

Joking that he won't get re-elected because he's so outspoken about many things, including his views about education, a lot of what Panimera had to say made a lot of sense.

"The future looks kind of bleak right now, especially in a community where there is high unemployment," said Panimera.

"I hate to see kids drop out of school when a lot of jobs require a good education. I want to make the system more attractive to kids and I want them to be more prepared for the outside world, not just Iglulik."

To that end, the father of four got involved with a goal-setting day held at Ataguttaaluk school on Sept. 20.

Designed to foster methods of bringing the community's and the school's vision of education closer together, the day of activities included an overall discussion with the 65 or so participants, followed by brainstorming in smaller discussion groups.

Panimera said one of his key concerns during the day was the deterioration of the school system in Nunavut. After watching his own son twice fail the same test he himself passed with three years less education, Panimera knew something had to be done to improve the students' -- and his own children's -- chances of success.

"That showed me what kind of education our kids are getting. Holy smokes, that's why I'm so concerned. If our kids want to go to school in other provinces they have to go back two or three grades just to be equal."

Including about 30 members of the staff and 30 community members from various areas of interest, school principal Greg Storey said the most important thing for the group to do at the start of the day was to get away from blaming and finger-pointing and to look at what the school and the community could do together to advance their cause.

The second point of focus he said was for both the parents and the school to ask themselves and each other what they had the right to expect from each other.

The answers and solutions were then charted, a concrete action plan was formed and a list of 14 committed volunteers was secured.

Storey said the next step in the process was for the group to come together again, an event that was scheduled to take place last Friday. He said the purpose of the second meeting was to actually put the wheels in motion.

"We're going to look at the report and say what are we going to do, how do we go on from here. We're going to try to keep this going as a process and bridge that gap between the school and the community," said Storey.

"We realized as a school that it's like the sound of one hand clapping when we don't have the strong support of the community."