NTI Releases Annual Report on Inuit Culture and Society

(February 13, 2008 — Iqaluit, Nunavut) Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Acting President James Eetoolook today released the Annual Report on the State of Inuit Culture and Society, entitled Saqqiqpuq: Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education in Nunavut. The annual report is an annual obligation of Article 32.3.4 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and the 2005-07 report focuses on the education system in Nunavut.

“Improving the education system and education results in Nunavut is a primary aspiration of NTI. Without renewed attention and investment from all stakeholders to improve kindergarten to Grade 12 education, Inuit will not be able to fully access the government’s obligations under the NLCA, access benefits of economic development, or fully access the necessary tools to build a fully functioning Inuit society,” said Eetoolook.Eetoolook said the current education system and the proposed Education Act do not do enough to formally entrench and empower Inuit language, values, culture and society into its governance, administration, and delivery. The first education bill, introduced in 2000, was withdrawn in 2002. NTI is concerned the current draft legislation has not addressed some of the major concerns associated with the first attempt, specifically local control of education and language of instruction. The current draft bill has passed two readings and could pass third and final reading during the next session of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, scheduled to convene Feb. 19 in Iqaluit.

Eetoolook called on MLAs to read NTI’s annual report to better understand why the proposed legislation must be improved before it can achieve its intended purpose.

In the report, NTI calls upon the Government of Nunavut to replace the dissolved regional boards of education with suitable alternatives.

“We expressed our serious concern about the loss of local control in 1999 and we stand by that nearly nine years later,” said Eetoolook. “Inuit parents and communities must enjoy the same fundamental decision-making rights about their children’s education as other parents in Canada.”

Eetoolook said NTI, alongside educators, lobby groups, parents and communities have since asked for new forms of local control to be established, but the GN has denied repeated requests.

“One of the root problems in the education system, and a cause of the GN’s failure to meet its land claims obligation under Article 23, is the lack of a concerted, coordinated effort to deliver Inuit language instruction from K-12,” said Eetoolook. “Our report states that Nunavut’s education system neither produces students fluent in written and oral Inuit language, or a high quality fully transferable degree in English. The language of instruction model must change to produce fully fluent bilingual graduates grounded in our first language – the Inuit language.”

In order to bring about the necessary transformative change to Nunavut’s education system and to the proposed Education Act, NTI makes several recommendations in the annual report, four of which are fundamental:

1. Inuit society, language, and culture must be entrenched as the foundation of the K-12 education system in Nunavut.
2. Inuit language must be the principle language of instruction for Inuit students in Nunavut schools as an inherent right.
3. Local autonomy must be returned to the governance of the education system by adequately replacing the abolished regional boards of education with an equivalent structure.
4. Immediate and creative measures must be instituted to drastically increase the numbers of Inuit teachers in the schools.

As required by Article 32 of the NLCA, Saqqiqpuq: Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education in Nunavut is to be tabled in the Nunavut Legislative Assembly and the House of Commons.

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For further information:

Kerry McCluskey
Director of Communications
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated
Tel: (867) 975-4914 Toll-free: 1-888-646-0006
kmccluskey@tunngavik.com
www.tunngavik.com

>>Download 2007 Report.