RANKIN INLET - Rankin Inlet will be hosting the contract delivery of the Northern Teachers Education program this coming September.

The program will be delivered through Nunavut Arctic College's (NAC) Kivalliq campus and will run from four to five years.

Nunavut Arctic College president Mac Clendenning: would like to see the NTEP offered in each of Nunavut's three regional centres. - photo courtesy of Nunavut Arctic College

NAC president Mac Clendenning said the decision to place the Northern Teachers Education program (NTEP) in Rankin is a tribute to the work done in the community to identify the number of potential candidates to support the need for the program.

He said NAC continues to work on ways to expand and enhance delivery of the program so the college can have it as a permanent offering in the Kivalliq region.

"We'd like to see the NTEP offered on a more permanent basis in both the Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions so we can make it easier for people to access the program," said Clendenning.

"We've been offering one program in each region on a community basis by moving it around, and the program finishing up in Arviat made it possible to move it to Rankin.

"But, other than that, if somebody wanted to take the NTEP, they'd have to relocate to Iqaluit for four years and that's a big commitment, especially for anyone with a family.

"Ideally, we'd like to see the program offered in each of the regional centres to maximize its potential."

The NTEP has been running in Arviat for the past four years and the students are currently finishing their degree with McGill University.

The Arviat students received their NAC diplomas - which are recognized by McGill - this past summer.

The college also delivers McGill's bachelor of education degree, which nine Arviat students will complete this coming June.

Clendenning said the NTEP finishing up in Arviat has been one of the most successful community-based programs he's seen during his time in the North.

He said it upsets him when anyone suggests that NTEP training is inferior to similar programs in the south.

"We let our graduates speak for themselves.

"We've been turning out graduates in partnership with McGill for the past 25 years, and they've proven that they're capable and competent educators.

"If they weren't so capable, there wouldn't be so many other organizations trying to steal them away.

"There are an awful lot of capable NTEP graduates who have been drawn off into other jobs such as department heads, deputy ministers and elected officials.

"So I don't see this as a second-class degree at all."

Kivalliq campus director Mike Shouldice said the Rankin NTEP received 16 strong applications shortly after it put out the call this past January.

He said the program was reviewed this past year in Education Minister Ed Picco's desire to make its delivery bigger and more robust in order to attract and qualify more teachers.

"One of the recommendations to come out of the government's review, so far, is to create more base programs for the NTEP in other locations," said Shouldice.

"That would be an additional source of funding, and ongoing discussions are focusing on which communities would be selected and how it could be done."

Shouldice said Corrections Canada officials are also looking at training correction workers at NAC's Kivalliq campus in Rankin.

He said it's not inconceivable that in five years time, NAC could have an active NTEP, a corrections-training process and a trades-training centre in Rankin.

In addition, construction on the new family residence is scheduled to begin this summer.

"If the decision is made to put a permanent base-funded NTEP in Rankin, it would be an active program requiring three more instructors and smart classrooms with teleconferencing and other state-of-the-art equipment.

"The last full program we ran in Rankin was in 1992-93 at Maani Ulujuk High.

"We had 34 graduates from three communities in the region come from that program, including Language Commissioner Johnny Kusugak.

"The entire Kivalliq region, and other communities in Nunavut, would benefit if Rankin were granted a permanent NTEP program."