Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 12, 2007

NUNAVUT - Nunavut's ambitious new Education Act cleared a major hurdle last week, passing its second reading in the legislative assembly on Nov. 6.

The Standing Committee on Health and Education now has 120 days to review the document before returning it to the house for a third and final reading.

Approval of what Education Minister Ed Picco calls a "landmark" act would legislate Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun into the territory's school system - a first in Canada for a language other than French and English.

It would give District Education Authorities (DEAs) the power and resources to fully implement bilingual education, using language models that suit each community.

The act calls for an additional $14 million in funding, and would put a counsellor in each school to deal with the socio-economic problems in the communities, said Picco.

It also makes provisions for elder certification, enabling elders who contribute their knowledge to the students to be paid at a more equitable wage to teachers for their time.

This was something for which the staff of Nakasuk school in Iqaluit had long been fighting, according to Oonga Kilabuk, the school's principal.

"Our school, by ourselves, has had to fundraise to get elders in," she said, following a press conference held by Picco on Nov. 6.

The content of the act did not come as a surprise to the educators and staff who have been a part of its development process, said Lucy Taipana, principal of Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik in Kugluktuk.

"It's what you expected, everybody's voice was heard," she said.

She said she hopes the new act will mean more money for the development of a new Inuinnaqtun-language curriculum.

But while Nunavummiut educators applauded many of the act's proposed changes, the implementation depends in part on the development of many more Inuktitut-speaking teachers than Nunavut has currently.

Picco estimated that between 150 and 200 new teachers will be needed to meet a goal of 50/50 bilingual education by 2019.

There are no firm numbers of Inuktitut-speaking teachers in the system currently, but Brad Chambers, director of policy and planning for the Department of Education, estimated there to be 39 per cent Inuit teachers, many of whom speak Inuktitut.

There are currently about 670 teachers in Nunavut.

Forty-three students are now enrolled in Nunavut's Teacher Education Program as well, Chambers said.

While numbers have improved at the elementary school level, in high schools "you can count on one hand the teachers who have Inuktitut speaking ability," he said.