EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So they cut costs and the result of that is it cut teachers and raised the PTR, it cut programs out of schools you know that there are not too many schools right now that have any vocational type activities that they are funded for within their programs.
We need to look at things like that in order to enhance and upgrade and improve our education system.
We cannot continue to go on the same old process or path that we are on. I believe you know that if we continue to do that we are going to continue to suffer with a lot of the problems that we face today.
The things, the issues, the social issues that as a result of our young people, you know the high unemployment, and things like that.
You know we need to be able to do things better.
We need to be able to develop a system that does a better job of teaching our children not only in English but in Inuktitut.
I think that some inroads can be made to maybe providing a better quality program in both of those languages and Mr. Chairman you know some of these comments that I am making are not in any way, shape or form a negative reflection on the staff and the teachers that are in the schools right now. Those people that are out there, I tip my hat to them.
They have been doing the best they can with what they have.
They have been stretched to the limit and you know the answer is we need to be innovative, we need to look at different ways of doing things to improve not only the quality of education but we need to look at improving the numbers that, the graduation numbers that the minister was talking about earlier.
We need to be able to offer a variety of choices within the system.
Not everyone is an academic.
A lot of individuals out there are falling through the cracks by there not being any type of pre-trades or vocational type programs being offered in the schools and I think if, hopefully some of the funding and one of my questions written down here is allocated to our trades and that is looking at integrating these types of programs, or looking into the development of these types of programs into the secondary school systems.
Going back to the funding, I really believe that we have to take a different look at that, it's been quite obvious if you take a look at the numbers and that over the past, that the system and the way that things are being done right now is not working.
Our system, at no fault again of the people working in there, is deteriorating and we need to find a way to turn that around.
I think by being open to looking at new ways of doing things, innovative ways, communicating with the people out there, the teachers that are the ones right in the front lines and how we can find ways to improve and enhance the program and services being offered out there by the department would be the direction that we need to go in.
I'm being indicated that I'm running out of time so, Mr. Chairman, I'll close off with that and my closing or opening remarks and I look forward to asking some general questions about the minister's opening comments.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Tootoo. The members have the opportunity to have their comments and these aren't new things that we are talking about.
We have been concerned about them for quite some time and we would like to see them implemented.
I thank the members for voicing their concerns, they all have ten minutes for their comments.
Mr. Alakannuark is next.
Just a short comment.
I keep hearing comments about the elders starting to disappear, they are starting to die off but some of us are not dying off.
But it's the elders that have knowledge in traditional ways of doing things that are disappearing and dying off.
There's a lot of elder's that know about the traditions a long time ago, that's the way they lived and that's what they know.
The children in the schools should be taught about the traditions and the modern styles.
They should be able to be taught hunting and survival on the land because they have to try and protect themselves if they want. If they want to learn they have to be able to survive out on the land.
Someone mentioned that, it has been mentioned numerous times that there is no money for Inuktitut teaching and it's unfortunate.
Perhaps in the future it should be considered by the Department of Education.
I think there should be, it should be that today's students have to be…
Perhaps, we are losing our quorum.
At this time I'll stop my comments right here.
Chairperson (interpretation): We are losing our quorum and we will ring the bell.
Thank you for coming promptly.
We were losing our quorum.
Mr. Alakannuark do you still have comments to make.
It’s getting quite hard for the students because they are in between cultures, they have a little bit of education and they know a little bit of their Inuit tradition.
I think there should be a study, like one of the members said about how effective the education system is in the Nunavut region.
It’s not very nice to hear when we hear them punishing the students for doing inappropriate stuff in the schools.
They get suspensions and punishment.
We don’t do that as Inuit people, if they do something bad in school, we talk to them.
We don’t give them suspensions.
When they need a drink of water in the school, they usually stop them from having a drink because they want them in the classroom.
Those kinds of things should be studied or reviewed by the Department of Education.
That’s it at this time, Mr. Chairman.
The next speaker will be Ms. Williams.
Ms. Williams: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I am going to speak in English because I was taught in English by the educators.
First I’m going to practice.
I would like to start by saying education is the oldest, I guess in the communities as far as the government services and some of us that went to the first schools in the communities are turning gray.
We should know, we’ve had a lot of practice in the communities and it seems like education is always changing, which is a good thing.
I really praise the teachers and the people that are working in the schools, because they have a very difficult job.
Meaning that when you put children into Inuktitut classes for 3 to 4 years, then you try to switch them in to English at grade 4 or 5, that is a very difficult to do I think.
My children went through that kind of education system and I know my nieces and nephews and a lot of people in Nunavut are going through the same thing.
I do praise the teachers and educators and principals of the job that they are doing in the communities.
The Education system has the most impact in the communities than any other government department or service.
It’s very important that we do it right.
One thing that has been a question many times by many people is, do we really have academic programs in Nunavut.
Some of our children went through this.
For example, I know a student that went through an academic program, graduated an academic grade but had to take upgrading to get into University or another trade school.
What kind of message is that to the people in Nunavut.
What kind of things are we teaching to make sure that an academic program is an academic program.
I think we need to improve on that.
But the minister’s opening comments was very good in as far as people graduating more and he indicated quite a lot of Inuit students are graduating from high school programs.
It is not clear which program that they have graduated if they are in a general program or the so-called academic program.
I wanted to mention that, because it is a concern and we need to take a look at that properly.
Another thing that I wanted to touch upon is social assistance, income support they call it today.
It is also in this department.
It is sad in some of the communities that I visited.
Half of the high school students are gone the first day of the month or the 15th day of the month because they are in the social income support office trying to get social assistance.
So what we can we do to make sure that these people are in school.
Maybe discipline is a question.
We need to take a look at discipline at the schools.
In income support programs and I think I was part of this as a social worker for 14 years.
As government we made a lot of people dependent on the government.
There were a lot of people that could be working or even hunting or even helping their in-laws or fathers.
They would just sit at home waiting for the 1st day or the 15th day of the month.
How do we tackle that.
I think we all need to get together and make sure our people are not more dependent on these programs because I think Mr. Iqaqrialu was talking about how Inuit used to do things and how we would like things done.
Inuit were very responsible people.
We recognize that and that is how they were.
They disciplined their children.
They were leaders.
How do we get that back through schools.
I am not sure that could be accomplished.
But I think we will keep trying to make sure we have responsible citizens that are growing in our communities.
I also wanted to say a little bit about parents being involved in the education system.
Mr. Chairman, a lot of the people that I know cannot be involved in the education system basically because they cannot speak in English.
Children are bringing home homework.
Their parents cannot teach them or help them which some of us here can do.
How do we help those people to make sure the homework is being done.
I think people that are older than us have been labelled as lazy parents because they didn’t help their children to be in school or support them.
I think that is wrong thinking.
It would be like me going to China and I am trying to teach Inuktitut in Chinese communities and I don’t know what they do and how could they try to help their children if they can’t read Inuktitut that I am teaching their children.
I don’t know their culture, I don’t know the make up of their family.
But I am teaching them something.
I know this is difficult to hear and also difficult to talk about.
But we need to tackle it together and we need to be more innovative to make sure the parents know what the children are faced with or how they could support them better.
I know the minister’s opening remarks sounded like my home.
I help my children.
Unfortunately my brothers and sisters who are older than me don’t do that.
Or they can’t do that.
They would but they can’t.
So how do we make it so that the children are not feeling they are not supported.
Or parents are not feeling inadequate when we can say as a government because of their support children can achieve.
I know that they can wake their children in the mornings and I know that they can feed them. That's support.
But as far as helping them with their schoolwork, not everybody can do it. So I don't want to sound negative, I know that I am sounding one but I need to tell it the way it is.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Ms. Williams. Those are good comments.
I have no more names so if there are no more comments from the members and I have no more names on my list.
If you get to your book, 2001-2002 Capital Estimates.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask my question first before we go to the Capital Estimates.
The minister mentioned in his opening speech that there would be 20 teachers graduating from the teacher education program.
Where are they going to go.
Chairperson (interpretation): I just want to let the members know that the Capital Estimates and various kinds of other issues will be coming up so perhaps you can ask that question when the time comes.
We have to go through the Capital Estimates at this time, so when we get to that topic maybe you can ask that question.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): There's a further 1.8 million dollars he mentioned in his opening comments, perhaps I can ask that question when we get to the Main Estimates but we are going to be dealing with the capital estimates.
I would like to ask about the approximately 20 new teachers across Nunavut and where they are going to be.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Yes, I will give you the opportunity to ask that question.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): In the minister's opening comments he stated that there are approximately 20 new teaching positions across Nunavut beginning this fall.
I just wondered where those new positions would be located.
That's my question to the Minister of Education.
There are approximately 20 new teaching positions we are putting forward early this fall.
They will be graduating at that time.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I just want to ask the minister if he has the communities where those new positions will be located.
At this time we have not decided which communities they will be located in.
We will find out the number of students in each community and after we review that, then we will determine the locations.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. They will have to wait before they locate them to various communities.
We are still under general comments.
My comments are very brief.
I do not have much to say today to the relief of my colleagues.
The only thing that I will be talking about today and my comment is that finally Nunavut gets a chance to make its own Education Act.
It has been a long time coming.
I was a member of a DEA when the last Education Act was done with the Government of the Northwest Territories and there was not really a lot of community consultation or DEA consultation.
It was an Act that was just re-written a bit to make people happy, mostly the bureaucracy.
But being involved in this government and the way that the Education Act seems to be coming or the lack of it, I think it is going to be an education act that is made in Nunavut and will probably reflect the needs of this territory and not the one of the GNWT with different ethnic groups over there.
I am really looking forward to seeing the draft when it does show up and I know as a member of that committee we hear things from our colleagues here about the way things used to be.
Programs and the way DEAs are treated and the way that people are treated within the school.
Which gets me into the next subject.
I am finding that in my community when kids come out of grade 6 and they go into grade 7 there does not seem to be a lot of consultation given to the parents and parents still have in Nunavut, parents still have in a lot of the communities a reluctance to go in to talk to teachers and that is no fault of the teachers, they have this reluctance to go in to talk to teachers about where there kids are going in the system.
I think they are just trusting like we all are, okay, when my son or daughter goes into grade 7 are they going to take an academic program or are they going to take a general education program.
I think we have to put more emphasis as probably parents and as leaders to encourage parents to go into the schools and find out what programs their kids are going to be taking whether it is a general program, general education program or an academic program because I do not think a lot of parents know. I think the teachers that we are hiring in the secondary program today are qualified to teach both general education and academics.
That is what I found out.
I had to make a concerted effort to find out what my own child was taking in school and what program they were taking because I think a lot of people in our communities think that once a student graduates from grade 12 they are automatically eligible for entrance into a university program and I do not think that is the case.
I think the parents, it would be a courtesy whether it is a letter or a meeting, a parent teacher meeting to say okay what does your child want to take and what do they want to be when they grow up.
I think that is something that we owe ourselves to try to get through to our children.
When kids graduate today and I think it is great that we have grade 12 in a lot of our communities and you are right today in your statement that we have 200 graduates and I think that is a step in the right direction.
With more communities having grade 12 and more younger people getting into DEAs and understanding what is being taught in schools and maybe you are right we will see more graduates from our schools. I am glad to see that the Government of Nunavut has dedicated 40% of its budget overall to education because we say that the start to life is a good education.
I am glad the Government of Nunavut has decided that education is one of the priorities and I hope that it continues that way.
High school programs, I’m old school.
I have a very hard time figuring out why, and the parents in the community talked to me when I was on the DEA, how come our students only to go to school 2-3 times, I am talking grade 10, 11, 12.
They are not going to school every day and it has something to do with credits and the Alberta curriculum and teaching staff and things like that.
In the high school program, I noticed in my community that you have probably, that classrooms are getting larger.
But, there seems to be a lot of time off because of different programs and things like that.
And the parents are saying how come this is like this.
Shouldn’t kids go to school all day. If they get up a 9 o’clock in the morning, shouldn’t they stay there until 3:30.
And, they are saying it is because of this and this and this.
But, if kids are behind in school in grade 9, 10, or 11 shouldn’t they stay there all day and maybe there is a classroom set aside or a hallway set aside where they are tutored a bit to maybe achieve a level that we may get more graduates.
I brought this up numerous times that why are kids only going school 20 or 15 periods a week.
The parents get confused because well how come you don’t have to go this morning but you have to go tomorrow morning and you don’t have to go this afternoon.
I am sure if we had an education system that was comparable to other provinces that we would probably get more graduates also.
But I think we have come a long way.
I have seen us come a long way in education in a few short years.
I think if there is opportunity in classrooms for high schools students to go and get tutored or catch up, that would probably work to the students’ advantage.
I said I was going to keep my comments brief and I’ll leave it at that.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to make a general comment.
But possibly I could ask a question first Mr. Chairman.
I see your opening comments and I believe we are just going to be dealing with the Capital Estimates.
Are you going to be making another opening statement when you go to the Main Estimates.
You didn’t make any comments on social assistance.
About my opening comments, I tried to cover everything, including the Capital Estimates, the O&M and income support.
As someone had stated earlier and what we have heard was that we were going to be dealing with the Capital Estimates first.
Maybe the member didn’t hear that when the comments were being made.
I am just following through with the opening comments that were made earlier.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Mr. Minister.
When we go into the Operations and Maintenance, I will be making a comment.
You didn’t make any reference to income support in your opening comments.
I’ll be making comments about that later.
Chairperson (interpretation): I don’t believe that was a question.
Mr. Iqaqrialu you wanted to make a comment.
When we get into the Capital Estimates, I'm sure we will be able to ask any questions that are not covered.
There will be some questions that I would like to ask but it wouldn't have anything to do with the capital estimates.
Is it possible for me to ask my questions before we get into the Capital Estimates.
Chairperson (interpretation): I can give you an opportunity as long as it's an educational issue.
These are going to be our main goals for the year and there are a lot of other issues that are a concern to the communities.
There are also needs that were identified by communities, we'll give you an opportunity to ask questions on those issues if it's not included here.
I will let you ask your question.
Even when students complete their grade 12 they can't get into the workforce because there are no jobs available.
Even if they do apply for jobs they don't have the required experience or the required knowledge.
Maybe we're just passing students even if they don't qualify to go to another grade and because of that they are not able to get into the workforce.
Is there something we can do about it.
I believe we will have to get a response.
I think that we have to come to an understanding first.
What we'll have to find out is what it means to have completed your grade 12.
Completing grade 12 means that they now have the basic requirements, they have the basic reading skills and now they can further their education if they wish to do so.
It doesn't mean that they can get into the workforce, but once they complete their grade 12 they can go to trade school or further their education after the completion of their basic education.
This is not the first time we have heard those comments. As Members of the Legislative Assembly, we have heard repeatedly that they are not getting into the workforce even after they have completed their grade 12.
For those students who have completed their grade 12, we all know that they can now concentrate on a trade or further their education after their basic graduation.
They can now enter a trade school or college or university.
It's not just passing students from one grade to another.
They do need to further their education if they want to get into a specific job market.
Thank you for your explanation and your response but I have another question.
I think that there has to be overall review of the education system.
Following my experience, I learned through experience as I grew older and so on.
I had the basic life skills by the time I was about thirteen years old.
It doesn’t seem to make sense when you reach grade 12 you can’t get into the work force, is it just the literacy skills or general education that you do up to grade 12. That is my question.
Mr. Minister.  Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I just tried to give you an example.
We do know that when a job opportunity comes up it usually says that you have to at least have your grade 10, 11 or 12.
Using that as an example, a student who completed their basic education can then enrol into Arctic College to take a Nursing Program or some of the specific courses.
But they do have to complete their basic education first.
There’s a lot of examples we can use but when a person reaches grade 12, they get a certificate and then there’s different courses that a student can take.
For example, Environment Technology or some of the specialized courses that the student can take.
They will have to have at least grade 11 to enter those specialized courses.
Then after the completion of that course, they can get into the job market and you do need your basic education in order to enter those specialized courses.
They have a better opportunity in continuing their education and getting into specialized fields.
I don’t want to be confusing anybody here, I’ll just leave it at that.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, I believe that was an adequate response.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I could probably paraphrase my question and bring it up again.
Another question I had is in regards to the schools that are going be built or will be ongoing.
My question is about the Department of Education getting 40% of the total government budget and also on the issue of capital dollars. There are a lot of Nunavut communities that do not have adequate school facilities.
I can use an example of the next 3 years. Even if there’s completion of certain identified schools, we still have to be building more school facilities.
Looking at the schools, some of them are in planning stages and of course there will be more ongoing requirements as the facilities age.
At this time I don’t have any names for general comments.
We will move on to the Capital Estimates.
Is that the wish of the Committee.
Chairperson (interpretation): We are on page 9-6.
Education program summary.
Corporate services.