NR 02-15 EDU ENG Education Act Submission.doc
(October 1, 2002 — Iqaluit, Nunavut) The current draft of the Education Act fails to protect Inuit language and culture, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. President Cathy Towtongie said today as part of her presentation to the Legislative Standing Committee on Health and Education.
NTI’s concerns with the present draft of the Education Act are primarily with the government’s approach to the primary language of instruction and the election of District Education Authority members, said President Towtongie. Our education system needs to respect the fact that the survival of our languages and culture depends on our children receiving their K-12 education in their first language.
NTI made three recommendations to the Standing Committee:
Make Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun the primary language of instruction for all grades, K-12, in communities where a majority of the population speak these as their first language.
NTI and the Government of Nunavut should work together on securing more funding for teacher training and curriculum development to support the new approach to the primary language of instruction, and
Revise the current draft of the Education Act to ensure that all people on the voters list can vote for their District Education Authority members, rather than limiting this power to rate payers only.
NTI believes children learn best in their own language, said President Towtongie. Our research into the experience of other jurisdictions such as Greenland and Nunavik leads us to conclude that using Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun as the primary language of instruction will result in higher academic achievement at both the secondary and post-secondary level.
NTI also noted that its proposed changes would help the territorial government to meet its own goal of having Inuktitut the language of government by the year 2020.
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