EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I don’t know if we broke them down by school, semestered and non-semestered, but I could find that out and get back to the member.
I don’t know what university he went to but when I went to university I wasn’t cramming for seven or eight exams in a 10-day period.
I think the maximum course load I took was six and it was over a two to three-week period, which made it quite a little bit easier than doing it as a grade 12 student fresh out of high school trying to graduate and write seven to eight in two weeks. So, I would certainly like to see that information from the minister as soon as possible.
I take that as a commitment he made.
I wanted to ask also on Page G-15 of the business plan, the minister mentioned that the grade three math criterion standard he mentioned in his minister’s statement the other day. Can the minister clarify or tell me how that grade three math test process is going to help students proceed through the grade four, five, six levels in elementary school?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Again, I’m just wondering, either we are not aware of where on the exam schedule where students are doing seven or eight exams in a two-week period or something. I was trying to be facetious when I said in university you try to cram in seven or eight, I am not aware of that either.
So I would like to find out that information and bring that forward. If that’s the case then we need to be able to review that.
On the math criteria standard, what we’re trying to say is when you get to grade three, each student would be tested on a criterion standard.
Let’s say the standard said you had to add, subtract, multiply, and divide a whole number, you had to identify a fraction and so on.
If a student is not at that criterion standard for grade three math, then the teacher would be able to come in and have extra resources and so on to help bring that student up to that standard.
That standard would be the same standards that you would use in Cambridge Bay, or Iqaluit, or Clyde River so that the schools would be on the same criterion standards.
So that would help facilitate the education abilities of the students and the schools.
Can the minister tell me when that grade three math test would be given to the students? Would it be at the start of the grade four year or during the grade three year? At what point would you have the student do that test?
The test is, as the member knows, is the first roll out of several tests for which we’re trying to develop criterion standards.
So that test will roll out this spring, in the next several weeks.
What we would hope then, after that point, is that that standard would be in place and would be done on an annual basis in our schools.
So is the minister telling me that if a student doesn’t achieve the grade three math level that they are supposed to achieve that they will not be promoted to grade four, they will stay in grade three until they pass our grade three math test?
That’s not what I said. What I am trying to say is this would be a criterion standard test that would be in place to ensure that the students that are at, in this case, grade three math that the student understands and comprehends adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing a whole number, adding a fraction if that’s the case, and so on and so forth.
If the student doesn’t have that, they might have still passed English, writing, reading, Inuktitut, syllabics, whatever.
So that’s not what the idea of the test is to do, the idea of the test is to create a given standard, the criterion standard across Nunavut so that we’d be able to make sure that all students are on an equal footing in school.
G-18.
Mr. Arvaluk: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation) I’m not going to make a long comment but although I want to speak Inuktitut to this issue but what I am reading is in the English language under. (interpretation ends) This mostly is a comment.
I am very concerned about attendance and homework, lack of homework. I’ve looked after all my cousins that are in grade 10 and in those six months he never had homework in high school.
When I was going to high school in Ottawa the evening was too short to get my homework done. By the time I’m finished I was usually tired. I had to walk to school, again for another hour to get to school.
I would like to encourage the minister to start working more closely with DEAs to give the students more opportunity to succeed in high school. That includes good attendance and given homework.
That means they will have to work with parents to encourage parents to participate in the development of their children.
I know some parents do not give their children breakfast simply because they have no cereal or milk that morning. I was in fact laughed at when I said I don’t have cereal for my kids.
I give them Uujuq at 7:30 in the morning. They don’t mind. Kids eat anything.
Why are we becoming traditional in some ways and not in some other ways? I think that Inuit pride will have to come back because I grew up eating Uujuq for breakfast everyday, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
Giving the information about good food is misleading in some ways because it’s only that the breakfast materials have bacon and eggs, and cereal, etcetera. That’s doesn’t really include traditional food.
I would like to expand on the idea that these are not necessarily Inuit traditional food. If you’re feeding children, especially boys at age two, they cannot tell the difference what the breakfast is supposed to be.
My two boys think that any kind of food is breakfast, as long as they are awake. Some of the kids were laughing at them for eating Uujuq in the morning.
Of course, my other son said that hunters eat anything anyway.
I would really encourage the department, especially the school operations can’t you get the regional offices to work more closely with the schools and expand the idea of how to succeed in the schools; including the attendance and guiding the parents that traditional foods are good at any time and try not to pay too much attention to what southern breakfast is, because in England they eat fish for breakfast.
It is only in North America that we have cereal and bacon and eggs. I am not sure.
I just wanted to make a short comment under that program because I worry that we’re not doing enough to encourage the success of the students.
If you’d like to respond, Mr. Picco.
In many of our schools the teachers and the staff put a lot of work into preparing some type of nutritional meal for students early in the morning because a lot of students do go to school without having anything to eat.
I think Mr. Arvaluk was correct when he said that as long as the kids have something to eat, whether that is traditional Uujuq, or Ullaaqsiut, then it is okay.
Again, his point is well taken.
G-18 and G-19.
I also have on my list why there are no consistent policies with respect to homework.
When our boy was going to school here a few years ago, and two of our grandchildren at different times, they were loaded with and, in many cases, were excited about doing their homework. Why is it not consistent throughout Nunavut?
Homework is not unique just to Nunavut when we say that it’s not consistent between schools, and indeed, between communities, or it’s between teachers.
In most cases where extra schoolwork is needed, the student would receive that as homework.
Like the member, I have three children in school; two of them bring home a lot of homework, the other one doesn’t. I go to the parent-teacher interviews and I hear from the teachers that they have done, or if one of my children has completed all the work at home.
So there may be different reasons for it. It’s not something that the department would say you’ve got to give homework; again, it’s based on what’s occurring with the student, the school, and indeed, the classroom itself and the classroom setting.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. The minister is making it sound quite simple but I think he should be a lot more concerned about the lack of consistent policy.
It is a policy issue. We don’t have school boards and we don’t have local control, and yet when we go to other provinces, and so on, we see the equivalency of Nunavut programs they say is way below.
I can tell you in a place like second to this community, the local DEA, or the teachers or the principals don’t have homework policies.
It’s mandated into that. The minister has to explain: why is it different than Iqaluit, for instance? Iqaluit students work very hard with their schoolwork and they got used to it.
Students need to work hard when they’re at that age. They have to be made to work hard.
The minister stated those might not be too casual and I stated earlier, there must be consistencies. And even your students succeed, they’re going to have to learn to work hard, and one of them is to bring in regular homework.
I have an idea of why they don’t but the idea is not something that would be appropriate for me because there have to be standards established.
Why are you allowing more discretion to some communities not to allow or have homework for high school students, and yet in places like Iqaluit, is it because the headquarters is a department issue of the government, but they do work hard here in Iqaluit.
I have to let you know because when our son went back home, he thought that life was so easy in town. No homework, no commitment to extra work and everything, and it begins a bad habit.
So I’m asking the minister: why are there no consistent standards for those kinds of things?
Don’t elude it to something of what the local DEAs may think of that, but I believe there should be standards in this.
In particular, the teachers don’t give homework for the sake of giving them homework.
The focus should be on the child and the success of the child in a curriculum that the child is doing. In that case, each child is different.
Some children will have more homework, as I said, than others and some might not have any.
Again, it’s not the standard staff policy, or what have you.
However, I would like to ask the deputy minister, who was a teacher not only in Iqaluit but in other communities. Maybe she can give an overview of what happens at that teaching level in the classroom from that expert point of view. So I would ask Ms. Okpik maybe to answer the member’s question.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Ms. Okpik, if you would like to respond.
As a teacher and if you look at K to 12, if there was some teacher to teacher then obviously there is going to be more homework for the students who are at a higher grade, but if you look at the elementary students they start taking homework gradually starting from taking a book home, or having a reading buddy at home so that would be the beginning of getting the student adjusted to having homework.
Teachers vary and there are various reasons. There are some teachers who get the assignments done in class. For example, if you look at K to three, half an hour would be used for relaxing and during that half hour, the students who need help would be working with the teachers working with the other group.
So it depends on the teacher and as they grow older they start getting adjusted to taking homework.
We don’t give homework just for the sake of giving homework. What was not completed in the school is taken home to complete and in regard to the curriculum and in some schools, for example, reading is usually done at home.
The teacher chooses what will be done for homework.
I would like to thank the minister and his deputy but I can say that we already know that.
We know that assignments that aren’t done in school are taken home and there is more requirement of high school graduates, but as parents we think it is very important that assignments are completed and high schools students don’t just take home work that has not been completed.
We are talking about high school students in Pond Inlet and Rankin Inlet. They don’t have any homework.
Why is it that it’s not the same here in Iqaluit? The minister has to tell us. (interpretation ends) Minister you are the school board, you have that standard that’s in front of you.
(interpretation) You must respond; I am not the only concerned individual.
We talked about it at home this winter and there were a bunch of parents who were saying that they are too lenient on the students and for the parents who have their students go to school here in Iqaluit, they do a lot more. You don’t just take homework that was not completed in the school, that’s what I’m getting from you, that shouldn’t be the case.
(interpretation ends) True homework is to work the mind.
Why no consistency throughout Nunavut? (interpretation) If you would inform us please, Mr. Minister?
I have tried to answer the question; I think the deputy minister tried to answer the question. In a conversation just now with the deputy minister, maybe here is an opportunity within the department itself, we have just set up our new school assessment program and part of that is to look at the standards and criteria in our schools and so on.
Maybe the opportunity then is to see what amount of work is being brought home by students and look at it by, and we don’t want to specially indicate a community or whatever. That probably wouldn’t be fair. But look at two to three communities in two to three different schools and see what the amount is and compare it to a school for example that we know where maybe a lot of stuff is coming home.
And then we will be able to report back to the members to see if there is something specific happening or is there some consistency in that, not in policy, but in what is occurring in the schools. And so I would make that commitment to the member.
I think that would be important. I fully understand the explanation.
I also understand what the parents expect from the schools.
And one of them is a positive one. More work they could do. When we do see the hard working student they tend to have better marks and so on.
So those are some positive suggestions from parents.
But, I want to lead to another question. I want to assure the minister with respect to teachers, violence against teachers and I think it is really not acceptable to many parents.
I met recently with the elders and they are 100 percent behind seeing some control brought into schools with violence against teachers.
Could the minister indicate to us what type of strategy or policy that each school has in respect to this kind of situation happening in schools, and what steps should the local DEAs take to address that kind of problem?
This is something that is an issue that is a national issue, as we talked about earlier in a question today from Mr. Peterson in formal session.
There are a lot of programs going on right now in Nunavut where we look at behaviour modeling and making our schools a safer environment not only for the students, of course, but also for the staff.
And the member again is correct when he says violence against students and violence against staff has increased and statistically we can see that.
We need a safe and positive school environment in place. We have effective behaviour support as well as restitution approaches. School improvement plans that many of our schools and the local DEAs have put in place and I guess through the new Education Act or again reviewing our school discipline policies on how we deal with violence and other behaviours in the schools and so on.
Chairman: G-20 is information item.
So is G-21.
Go back to G-4.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): I just wanted to say I used to live here in Iqaluit and my twins were in grade 1 and as Mr. Curley alluded to, when my boys were going to school here they use to bring homework when they were at grade one and they had to know how to use computers and calculators.
They are now at grade three and they don’t take any homework at all. And the younger one was put to grade four because he speaks English and he is in the grade four to five class and he teaches them how to read and to do math because he used to do them when he was here in Iqaluit.
So we have to look at whether there’s consistency in the Nunavut schools and the requirements to bring homework in all the Nunavut schools.
It wouldn’t be good if a student from Pond Inlet had a lower grade level than a student in Igloolik, or Iqaluit, or somebody from Iqaluit lower than a student in Ottawa.
We have to have higher expectations so that Nunavut students will be properly educated.
They don’t have the discretion. We are the parents.
We are the trustees, and we have to make sure that there’s consistent education taught in the Nunavut schools.
I would like to urge the Department of Education to look at each of the schools. We have a very expensive office. There is one for the Qikiqtani operations and then the regional office and then there are some based in Pangnirtung.
We have lots of employees who work and I think there are more employees than teachers.
So I would like to urge your department to make sure that we are going in the right direction and not just leave it to the DEAs.
(interpretation ends) G-4. Education.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $188,964,000.
Chairman: Does the committee agree that the Department of Education is concluded?
Chairman: Thank you, Minister, Mr. Chown, and Ms. Okpik. (interpretation) Minister, do you have any closing remarks? Minister Picco.
I’d like to thank the members and the committee on some of the comments and observations that have been made. We’ll be following up on Mr. Curley and Mr. Arvaluk’s suggestions. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a response back to them in the next couple of days.
Thank you to the committee and thank you to the House.
Mr. Mapsalak (interpretation): We’ve been meeting until eight and a lot of times we finish when the restaurants are closing, so I’d like to finish early before I get too thin.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Mapsalak. There is a motion on the floor to report progress and the motion is not debatable.
All those in favour of the motion, raise your hand, please.
I will now rise to report progress to the Speaker.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Members. Back to Orders of the Day.
Your committee has been considering Bill 1 and the main estimates and would like to report progress. Also, I move that the Report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Orders of the Day for March 28:
This House stands adjourned until Wednesday, March 28, at ten o’clock in the morning.
>>House adjourned at 18:36
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Pages 1095 – 1216
Opening Prayer 1095
Ministers’ Statements 1095
Members’ Statements 1096
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery 1100
Oral Questions 1101
Written Questions 1119
Tabling of Documents 1120
Motions 1121
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters 1127
Report of the Committee of the Whole 1215
Orders of the Day 1215
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 1095
049 – 2(4): Tabling of the Language Legislation (Tapardjuk) 1095
102 – 2(4): Hudson Bay Quest (Alagalak) 1096
103 – 2(4): Long Term service Awards in Clyde River (Arreak) 1097
104 – 2(4): Live-In Program Graduation (Peterson) 1098
105 – 2(4): Original Coral Harbour Descendents (Curley) 1099
106 – 2(4): APTN Weather Forecasting (Kattuk) 1100
139 – 2(4): Implementation of the Family Abuse Intervention Act (Barnabas) 1101
140 – 2(4): Protection of Gravesites (Curley) 1103
141 – 2(4): Repatriation of Artefacts (Mapsalak) 1104
142 – 2(4): Polar Bears in the Hudson Bay Area (Kattuk) 1106
143 – 2(4): Program Funding for Energy Savings (Curley) 1107
144 – 2(4): Incorporating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in Court Sentences (Alagalak) 1108
145 – 2(4): Funding to Build the Qikiqtarjuaq School (Arreak) 1110
146 – 2(4): Hans Island Sovereignty (Barnabas) 1111
147 – 2(4): Cambridge Bay Airport Upgrade (Peterson) 1112
148 – 2(4): KDBC Contribution Agreement (Tootoo) 1114
149 – 2(4): Program Funding for Health Care Professionals (Curley) 1116
004 – 2(4): Environmental Contaminants (Barnabas) 1119
005 – 2(4): Supplemental Costs of Staffing HSS Positions with Non-Certified Nurses (Tootoo) 1119
070 – 2(4): Electoral Boundaries Commission Report – Letter of Support for Recommendations from Hamlet of Kugluktuk (Evyagotailak) 1120
071 – 2(4): Inuit Language Protection Bill (draft) (Tapardjuk) 1120
072 – 2(4): Official Languages Bill (draft) (Tapardjuk) 1120
073 – 2(4): Enokhok Centre, Cambridge Bay Lease Information: Site Inspection 2005, Building Envelope Assessment 2007, Yardsticks for Costing (Brown) 1120
074 – 2(4): Utility Rates Review Council of Nunavut - Rules of Procedure and Practice and Rate Setting Guidelines March 2007 (Okalik) 1120
011 – 2(4): Censure of the Executive Council (Tootoo) 1121
Bill 01 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2007-08 –Consideration in Committee – Economic Development & Transportation 1128
Bill 01 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2007-08 –Consideration in Committee –Finance 1179
Bill 01 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2007-08 –Consideration in Committee – Office of the Legislative Assembly 1209
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Members, Premier. Good morning.
Minister for Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, Minister Tapardjuk.
Minister’s Statement 049 – 2(4): Tabling of the Language Legislation (Tapardjuk)
Just before I begin, I would like to welcome Paul Kaludjak’s staff from Nunavut Tunngavik, and they are here, and also the Francophone Association will be coming here, too, as well this morning.
Mr. Speaker, language is the heart of our culture. It shapes how we see and describe the world around us.
It is an expression of our deepest societal values.
Through our language, it gives us a sense of belonging, of pride and identity.
The Government of Nunavut is committed to protecting, promoting and advancing the Inuit Language, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut, as never seen before in any Canadian jurisdiction, while maintaining its commitments to Anglophones and Francophones and their language rights in our Territory.
Mr. Speaker, later today, at an appropriate time, I will be tabling the proposed Official Languages Bill and the proposed Inuit Language Protection Bill for public consultation.
These proposed bills require further input from language stakeholders and Nunavummiut on key issues where consensus has not yet been fully achieved.
The proposed legislation is nevertheless the result of collaborative efforts of the Language Legislation Steering Committee consisting of Nunavut Tunngavik, the Languages Commissioner, Iliqqusilirijikkut and other Government of Nunavut departments.
The Members of the Language Legislation Steering Committee have been working passionately throughout the last two years to develop a bill that reflects the recommendations of the Legislative Assembly Special Committee’s Report on Official Languages.
These bills also reflect the unique linguistic needs expressed by various focus group consultations that occurred throughout Nunavut.
The proposed provisions of the Inuit Language Protection Bill will have an impact on all of us including our children, families, communities, business, schools and governments.
It will establish the foundation for our language to grow and expand in every aspect of our lives.
It will give us the tools to develop and strengthen the Inuit language in Nunavut.
The proposed legislation will guarantee that our children have a right to receive Inuit language instruction in school and ensure that by their graduation they are fully proficient in the Inuit language, in both its spoken and written forms.
By providing our children with a strong foundation in the Inuit language, we will be ensuring the survival of our language.
Mr. Speaker, in order to support the effective implementation of the various proposed provisions of the Inuit Language Protection Bill I am excited to inform the Assembly that the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit will be created.
Mr. Speaker, under the proposed Official Languages Bill, the official languages of Nunavut will be the Inuit language, English, and French.
The proposed Languages Bill will provide the Languages Commissioner with enforcement and investigative capabilities to ensure compliance of public and private organizations with their language obligations.