EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Also they could tell me when there is an urgent case, like for example something in Clyde River and we need to talk with them so my staff would advise me.
I do not see any problems occurring with the direct contact from the communities.
Yes I understand his response, but the Inuktitut language if they want to use the Inuktitut language and have direct contact with the department they would have to have direct contact with the minister.
That is the way I understand it in the Inuktitut language.
Perhaps we need a new term in Inuktitut.
That way we can understand what the minister has stated.
Like for example if they want to have direct contact with the department we need a better Inuktitut term.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): Mr. Chairperson I think it is this way; the District Education Council's staff if they did not know how to respond to a community's request I would have the DEC call my office.
Once they call my office, my staff would answer the telephone Ooleena Naudlaq, my secretary and my assistant and my Assistant Deputy Minister are usually around.
So the community could call them and request to speak to the minister.
We do have a 1-800 number at the Legislative Assembly.
They could call me through there.
They could connect to that number according to who they wanted to speak to.
In Inuktitut that means the community will have the opportunity to have direct contact with the minister, especially the DEAs, if they go through the proper steps.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Iqaqrialu and the minister for answering those questions.
Mr. Tootoo it is your turn now.
Mr. Chairman the minister talked about adding another 6.5 million dollars to his budget and I was wondering if he could provide the summary of where it was all going.
I missed the summary and I also missed where he said the dollars were coming from.
I would just ask him to clarify that.
Hon. James Arvaluk: We can provide an explanation during the committee of the whole meeting.
Secondly, to finance 6.5 million dollars, this comes from the Department of Finance and Administration.
I don't know whether the Minister of Education can answer me or not.
Was that coming out of the 15 million dollar contingency reserve that was set aside or is that coming form other areas.
I am not the Minister of Finance I think you will have to wait until the Minister of Finance is on the stand.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman I would like to get clarification.
Just recently it became evident that I had to help a student buy groceries because that student has a child.
I was wondering if the student financial support is going to be increased.
Hon. James Arvaluk We are reviewing these two programs and after that I will be requesting a report.
Perhaps by September or October I will have the results by those dates for the income support program and for the student financial support program.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Minister for Education.
I will just do general comments Mr. Minister and I really do not need an answer.
The dissolution of the Boards is going to place more emphasis on DEAs to do a bit more and I think it is going to make the administration in the Regional offices a bit more accountable and I support that.
In regards to the Secretary Treasurer in each District Education Authority, they have a tremendous amount of work they have to do and sometimes they are given the support from the Regional offices that they deserve.
When I was on the DEA for a number of years we seem to have changed accounting practices every year and I am urging the Minister to maybe make sure the DEAs in Nunavut have a standardized accounting practice in their offices so that most DEAs are compatible if you have somebody training Secretary Treasurers in the accounting end which seems to be where our problems are.
So it is consistent right across the board.
I know in some communities that the types of accounting and paperwork are completely different.
My other concern is we have Arctic College in every community.
Years ago there used to be a co-ordinated approach for training.
There used to be feedback between DEAs and Arctic College.
We seem to have lost that now and I think more so it is probably more important and when I say that I do not mean like the TEP programs, the regional programs, I mean like the basic education programs, ABE those types of programs.
I think the DEAs and the community learning centres have to work closer together.
So I hope there is a co-ordinated approach and that they are not confused with each other.
There is not a reluctance to work with each other.
There is a bit of confusion there for them to work with each other.
Student teacher ratio. I know it is around a 22 to 1 ratio.
I know for a fact in the elementary ends in a lot the schools in the Kivalliq that the ratio is around 30 to 1.
I do not want to be negative about this.
I put no blame on the department.
In kindergarten to grade six, there is such different learning in a lot of the communities.
Where you have thirty kids in a classroom or where you have 25 kids in a classroom if you are in grade 3 and they are all at different grade levels, I think the kids at that grade level suffer. Because the teachers are scrambling and working hard to get the kids at other grade levels up to that grade level.
So the kids that are at the grade level, I think suffer substantially because they are not challenged more.
I know you live in a community and have probably identified that too.
However, the other factor we are going to see is after a few years of the overcrowding in the elementary end because we are going to have kids going to grade 7 and 8 and 9 that are not up to grade level.
That is when our drop out rates start. That is when the kids are starting to find out that they do not have the skills necessary to go into high school to graduate to go to university to get the jobs we have promised them and are saying they need to get an education.
On the other hand, the teachers are burnt out.
In the most cases the elementary school teacher turnover is probably pretty high.
But they are a dedicated lot. They are a dedicated group of teachers.
But I see they are starting to get tired looking after 30 kids a day in their classrooms.
Like I say I think you as a parent in Nunavut realize that as much as I do.
Now getting into the grade 7 to 12 end.
In my tours around high schools, like you when we went to school we had to go to school five days a week. Whether we liked to or not.
I know education has changed but has it changed that much where students get 3 days off and the parents are confused.
Because being in the DEA again I listen to parents' concerns that I do not know when my kids go to school anymore.
They have 10 or 15 spares a week.
To me, being old school again, if you do not go through a learning process and showing up for school everyday I think that rolls over to the workforce where I am only going to work only when I feel like it.
I have heard that from the private sector.
What are we doing in the high schools in the Keewatin.
I have been in many debates with Principals with arguments that I do not think gym should be a credited course because I never had it as a credited course but I do not want to start comparing myself to what is happening today.
But are we concentrating on what are the basics to learning.
Computers, reading and writing.
I think if we can read in our schools then they will be able to comprehend what we are teaching them.
So those are my general comments James.
It is probably the things you have heard from your constituents.
But I think we have to concentrate on teaching in the schools rather than all the fluffy stuff.
Computers are great.
We need the computers.
You know we need the cultural stuff.
But only so much of it.
You know I am a firm believer that the culture stuff should be taught out on the land.
But we do have programs in the schools that teach it.
Professional development.
I know you have only been in the job for a year.
I have been asking about professional development for teachers in the schools and I think it is being done.
I thinks it is not visible enough yet.
Another issue that came up to me this weekend as I was going through Rankin Inlet, there is a TEP program running there and I think it is great that we have a TEP program in Rankin Inlet for teachers.
I think we scared our potential candidates off because when I get graduates in my community, I had some in July and August, young people, I encourage them to try to get into the teaching profession.
The response to me is no.
It is too hard.
If we can not attract young people in our communities to maybe look at the teaching profession then I do not know if we are going forward or not.
I do not know how we attract young people in our communities into the teaching profession but there has to be some sort of incentive where these young people do not look at teaching as a scary thing or too much work.
Because there is a lot of work.
I think the rewards are when you see kids later, teachers see kids doing well.
So those are just my general comments James.
That is all I have to say today.
There is no question.
It is just a general comment.
Comments about his views on education.
Mr. Minister do you have a response.
If I make a mistake let me know.
In the page we were dealing with yesterday I think the Minister was talking about GNWT’s funding to be used for daycares.
He said there was some funding left over and the Nunavut Government had requested funds that were not used from the GNWT.
I know the money will be used for a good purpose but then they will be all be spent soon.
If that money is spent where would we be able to get some more funding as a Nunavut Government.
That is the question Mr. Chairman.
Yes the money we requested, if you used the money for a day-care and there was some surplus of funding even though the day-cares requested funding and there may be other day-cares that did not get any, so what we wanted to do is ask for more funding for that purpose.
We had planned in the main estimates that there would be some funds for that purpose if he can wait for that page.
Mr. Iqaqrialu will be able to ask that question when the time comes.
The first person that I recognize is Mr. Havioyak.
I would like to comment on the issue of Arctic College adult education.
I am sure the department has looked at these ones before.
I just want to mention for the record that today going to adult education to the bigger centres is not working well I think.
I am sure it was stated yesterday.
But I just wanted to bring that up again by saying I think the community based training programs will work better if there were put in each community.
Because today we have young people going to schools and not completing because they get homesick and because of other things because it is a new community to adjust to.
In the future it should be considered very seriously having a community based training program.
For example mechanics, apprentice carpenters and so on.
I think those should be looked at more closely in the very near future so we could have more trained people in the trades areas.
I just wanted to mention that has to be looked at very seriously.
Because I know communities across Nunavut are looking at those types of training and hopefully education will look at that.
I understand the members concern. (interpretation ends) I understand the concern and respect the idea at least the recommendation.
As the Minister of Education I have joined the Minister of Sustainable Development to prepare a discussion paper on mining development in Nunavut.
That builds on the Bathurst principle Inuuqatigirttiarni amma narminiq.
This will ensure that mining investment is possible in Nunavut communities.
This would include in to the planning stage for trades programs.
So as soon as we are able to come up with at least a policy towards the training programs, either communities do them or in the regional office of a Nunavut centre we have not determined that yet.
Then we will be able to advise you better.
But we are excited about getting in on the training plans so that we can catch the beginning of development in the mining industry, especially in Kivalliq and the Kitikmeot is already going in that direction.
Nakuurmiik Itsivautaq.
The next speaker is Mr. Irqittuq
Not too many questions coming from me, the questions that I asked yesterday I will not be asking them again.
The concerns that I have in regards to the Department of Education I will mention.
The first one is when I was campaigning to become a Member of the Legislative Assembly I campaigned about education.
There are many people in my community and my constituency that have dropped out of schools and are relying on income support.
They do not go out hunting and they are too old to go back to school.
We have an Arctic College in my community and that could be utilized by adult students but there is not enough room in that college and it is not utilized by very many people.
They do not always continue to go to school and it is not utilized enough and the ones that want to go to school to take adult education can not attend because there is not enough room in there.
The young people or those ones in between are not educated in regards to traditional hunting and they are not educated enough in the modern sense.
They want to go to school also they want to go out hunting but they do not have the clothing to go out hunting and they have not been taught to go out hunting.
I asked those questions to the past minister and asked him what are they going to be doing about it.
I directed it to the minister of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth but I never got an adequate response.
Now I am turning this question to the Minister of Education and he understands where I am coming from.
I do not believe that he wanted to make an appropriate response because of the lack of funds.
I know that we will need to use a substantial amount of money in order to do it but the response was not all people can be teachers.
Not all elders can be teachers.
The only response he made was not all people can be teachers.
I do know that is true.
But the 26 Nunavut communities do have people who could be teachers or instructors.
If we look, we will find them.
I just wanted to make that statement again.
We have to get it going because of the comments I have made.
I know I only have 10 minutes.
However, today Igloolik and Hall Beach are very close together and people who do not go out very often sometimes travel from my community to Igloolik without a qamotiq.
Once a blizzard comes up, they get lost.
A search and rescue party has to go look for them.
There have been many times in previous years we have had to look for people who have left without a qamutiq or supplies.
They can not read the weather patterns.
In my community it is very different.
It is not like Iqaluit.
It is so flat that you can go from ice to land without realising it.
The kids or the people are not being taught about survival skills and I believe there has to be money set aside so that we can teach these people.
We have to teach them survival skills.
There are many people who are in the workforce now that are parents in the workforce.
The children of these parents are just going to school because they have to because it is mandatory because they have to go.
But they are not being taught survival skills or land skills.
We do not keep our children all day.
They are in school and when they are not in school it is the parents that are working.
It has to become one of the programs that should be set up in the school system.
If it’s a male teach him hunting skills in all seasons because you can teach a child survival, hunting skills, currents, fauna, seaweed, snow, igloo building, making qamotiq.
Things that a full time hunter would know.
When you are a hunter there has to be many things you have to do on a daily basis.
Repairing equipment, going hunting.
When you are a full time hunter, it is a full time job.
This is one program that I would like to see in the school system.
You might say not all people can be teachers or instructors but there are people out there, there are even people slightly older than myself and even the minister himself who knows a lot about hunting skills and survival skills because he was brought up in an outpost camp outside of Igloolik.
He was brought up in an outpost camp before he started school.
He knows a lot more on survival skills than I do and I do not like his response saying that everybody cannot be instructors or teachers.
I can only say that he made that response because he does not have the funds to set up those types of programs.
For women or girls there are instructors that are available and I will work very hard to see these types of programs set up in the schools.
We might try Hall Beach or Igloolik as a pilot project where that type of program would be set up.
That is my first comment that I wanted to make.
Secondly, how many minutes do I have.
My last comment.
Today our students in my community I am not putting them down but I hear that they are following the Alberta curriculum.
However, in my community the language instruction is weak.
If I go to Igloolik it is a stronger education system in Igloolik more so than Hall Beach.
I have a daughter who will be completing grade 12 this spring.
She can not even speak English properly or does not speak as much English as Mr. Arvaluk.
I am sure I do not know about James but he might not have completed grade 12 and she speaks less English than he does.
I do not speak very much English but there are some things in English that she can not understand.
She can not even read properly.
If English is going to be used as a language of instruction then I would very strongly suggest that they do follow the Alberta curriculum the way it is supposed to be used.
If a grade 10 student from Hall Beach went down to Alberta, the student would probably drop out because of the huge gap between Hall Beach and Alberta.
There has to be something done about it.
The Federal Government is very wise.
I am not putting them down but they could be deceiving.
Looking at James Arvaluk, John Elupalik, my other brother Jack Qammuqaq, looking at the first set of children who went to school with me.
My grandmother did not want me to go to school.
The people who went to school in the 50’s and 60’s are leaders of today.
These people are very smart.
I think that the Federal Government lowered the education system so we do not advance.
I am thinking like that.
We have to do something about the education system.
If we are going to teach Inuktitut and writing then teach them properly.
But keep English and Inuktitut separate.
I wanted to make those comments.
Last in regards to the Main Estimates.
As you know there are other communities that are more in need than my community but I do want to help my community because I am representing them.
What I would like to see is the blueprints of the Hall Beach school completed and I will be asking for support from the other members so that the blueprints can be completed.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Irqittuq for your presentation.
Mr. Minister did you want to respond to some of the comments that Mr. Irqittuq made.
In regards to the college we have already taken just about all of them into consideration and we have agreed.
We do not disagree with the member but we have to remember for example, if he looked at the Divisional Board, he could look at what is available for adults.
His comments were to me but he could read documents that show where the elders can be utilized.
There are many responses to his questions and I would probably have to take an hour to respond to them.
The elder or the hunter, if there was funding available the hunter could also work at the school taking the students out on the land, instructing in the cultural programs and so on.
That is what we are starting to do so that those people who are willing will work instead.
We want the elders to be full participants in all this.
I do not want to say that they cannot be teachers but they have to be certified.
The elders would be very, very proud if they were certified, there are some very capable instructors and there are some that specialize.
Like you said I was brought up in an outpost camp and there are some people who know how to do it but they cannot teach.
I am not saying that the elders are not capable but the elders can specialize in two or three certain topics.
I am not arguing with the member.
Lastly, something that Mr. Iqaqrialu touched upon, the Education Act also says in there how the elders could be integrated into the school system.
There are drop-outs, there are people who aren't in school, there are young people who are too old to go into the school and the Education Act would like to include the students, and the parents, because of course the parents are a part of the student and they have to help.
When they go into high school and it does not look like they can pass the Alberta curriculum then there is something wrong, whether it is in Hall Beach or wherever.
Possibly the student teacher ratio does not match or… we have to look at what the problem is if the student cannot complete or pass the Alberta curriculum.
The curriculum is all set there.
Yes, I understand his response and his comments.
One thing that the minister kept saying is that he could take up to an hour to respond.
I understand that it would not take that long to respond.
You can only respond with the money.
If we get some dollars to hire staff then that's okay.
In addition, if we only use English as our language of instruction then we would teach them English.
We do not necessarily have to have official education.
For example, as a hunter and I become an instructor I would know that I would have to go hunting at a particular time of day.
As a hunter I would not use the working hours, I would depend on the weather.
However, one thing that creates a problem is that I know that the elder would have daily work, he would be busy.
I understand his response that the student teacher ratio has to be adequate, however, sometimes that person or that instructor could go into the schools and take the students out on the land.
In my home community quite a while back, although I have not seen it with my own eyes, I have heard that Nunavut is being used as a training ground to teach Inuktitut instruction for those students.
Perhaps Naullaq can respond to me.
I think that is what I understand in Inuktitut, if they have Inuktitut as a language of instruction but it is just being tested.
Perhaps this is creating a problem or hindering the students from learning English.
So I have heard that this was a test.
Before I forget, it is not a matter of finances when we want to hire elders as instructors.
For example, the NTEP uses huge sums of money to get training going with the students.
We have no problem with the finances for the elders, it was never planned ahead in the past as to how we could utilize the elders and what kind of instruction they could be giving.
They would be brought into the schools and they would just instruct the students one or two hours and there was no policy so it was left up to the communities' discretion.
The communities would consider the curriculum that they would be using and at the same time the elders would be teaching the students.
For example, if they were going to be teaching igloo making, I would not just teach students by showing them I would have to keep in touch with my students according to how much they are learning and how much they are taking in and how involved they are.
As an instructor I would have to know all that, I cannot just let them watch me and expect them to learn from watching automatically.
That is just an example.
I just want you to know that after speaking to many teachers, they have stated that it is evident if you are not a qualified teacher, either your first student or your 20th student, if they are not taking in what you are teaching the teacher won't even know that a student is lagging behind.
As well, if the communities wanted to hire their own teachers according to the Act the minister can certify an elder to become an instructor.