I just wanted to make a general comment on this Education Act about the concerns that have been raised from my constituency and also from the Keewatin over the years with regard to local programs and that is cultural programs being taught in the school, whether it's sewing programs or hunting programs.
In the Education Act there's a clause that qualified teachers will be hired and that no un qualified teachers will be allowed to work in the schools. I know there's a clause that says for less than 20 days you can have a unqualified staff to teach the students. In the communities there's always been a real concern with local program instructors being hired to teach the traditional skills in the schools. The people that are usually hired are elders from the community. They don't have teaching skills, they have never gone through the school system and they are given 15 or 20 students to teach at once. It is very confusing for them to teach a project, whether it be harpoon making or sewing kamiks.
I think there should be a program to teach these local program instructors or to certify them so that they can deliver the programs within a classroom structure because the way they were taught originally was on an individual basis. They have all the knowledge and skills to teach inside their brains, but they don't know how to deliver them to a class of 15 or 20 kids. If they are going to look at qualified teachers I think they should also look at certifying local program instructors and coming up with a program similar to the teacher education program, just geared towards local program instructors. That has been a concern for a long time.
I'm not saying that they are not educated enough to teach school kids. I'm just saying that the way that they were taught when they were growing up, most of these local program instructors are people who have not gone through the school system. They are elders coming into the schools to teach the local programs. They don't have the skills to teach a whole class of kids or even to do report cards.
I have often wondered, instead of letting them teach a whole bunch of kids in a regular classroom setting, if it wouldn't be better to contract them out to teach a specific skill such as to teach sealskin kamik making and just contracting it out to a person who is skilled in that area to have a better quality program. Instead of hiring one person, and you're expecting that local program instructor to teach all subjects in the Inuit culture, when he might just be skilled in trapping, or when he might just be skilled in parka making.
I know that has been a concern in the Inuit communities, as to how we can best deliver local programs in our schools when there is no teacher education program or local instructors program to certify these instructors so they are teaching the same quality programs as the teachers next door with all their curriculums.
Another concern has been school reviews. I've often felt that the schools should be reviewed every four years, all the programs in the schools; a review team could just come in and review the whole system to see if they're teaching grade 8 to the grade 8 students, or if they are teaching grade 4 to the grade 8 students, or if they are doing their yearly plans or daily plans; just reviewing the whole system. I think that has to be investigated in the Education department -- these school reviews -- on an ongoing basis, so that our teachers are meeting the needs of the students and that they're teaching quality programs.
In clause 61, it talks about the teachers being transferred to another community. Does that mean that the CECs don't have any more power to hire their own teachers, that they're just being given transfers from one community to another community? That was another concern.
Also, there's a clause in the Education Act about if your school is not providing 10, 11 and 12, then the Minister can pay for accommodation for that student to go to school and take those grades in another community. In the smaller communities with grade extensions, some parents are wondering if they can have the choice to send their students out of their communities to get a quality program because the schools that have extended grades were not built to accommodate quality education programs; they are too small. The parents are having a hard time. They like their students to stay home and attend grades 10, 11 and 12 and succeed, but they don't have much choice when they don't have any room. The teachers who are teaching those grades don't have enough room or enough resources in the smaller schools to teach quality programs to those students. With the clause where it says the Minister can only pay for students' accommodation in another community if the grades are not provided in their communities, the parents are concerned with that. If they want a quality program that might be provided in a bigger school, they would have to pay for their students to stay in another community with that grade. The small communities that are trying to provide grade extensions feel that they're not providing a good enough program because when the smaller schools were built in the communities, it wasn't planned very well to accommodate high school programs. With the community high school programs happening, it's a very good idea. It's a great idea, and a lot of parents are happy with keeping their high school kids at home and succeeding, graduating, but their concern has been that the schools were built without extending grades.
Many times in the smaller communities, teachers have had to teach all the subjects in a computer room when it was intended
for computer programs. There's a shortage of resources and rooms for those grades.
The other concern over the years is that a lot of the parents have not gone through the system in order to go with their children to the high school and understand which programs their children should take, because they don't really know the difference yet between academic programs and general programs. I think that will be a hindrance in our future as Inuit because our parents have to be exposed to the whole system of education so that they can support their children going to high school and give them the right choice with the right courses and going into academic programs, so that in the future we can have the qualified teachers and qualified lawyers or doctors we want.
But right now, most of the students are making their own decisions as to which courses they want to take, because their parents are not aware of different programs in the high school. So it's usually up to the Inuit students to decide which way to go, and a lot of our Inuit students are going into general programs and just graduating with a general diploma. The parents think they've gone through high school and find out that their children cannot qualify for certain university programs because of the choice they made on their own. That has been a real hindrance in education.
I think there has to be more public consultation with the parents on high school programming. I know most of the parents in the smaller communities support community programs. They are very happy with the community programs providing grades 10, 11 and 12, but do they realize that it's mostly general programs because the schools are too small to accommodate quality academic programs that we need for the future of Nunavut.
I guess those are the general comments that I wanted to make today. Tima. Thank you.