NORTEP closure causes confusion

Worry over increased drop outs in north after uncertainty over plan

When the Northern Teachers Education Program (NORTEP) closed earlier this year, it basically cost Jerrilynn McKay a year of postsecondary education.

McKay, from Cumberland House, was a second-year student who decided to attend the school mainly because it was located in a small northern community. But in March, the province announced Northlands College would take over for NORTEP in providing higher education in Saskatchewan’s north. NORTEP ceased operations this summer.

There were concerns raised over the effects closing NORTEP, first established in 1976, would have on northern communities and former students are speaking out. McKay is one of them.

Unwilling to move to a city to continue her post-secondary education, and unsure of how she would pay for it, McKay is currently working with single mothers through child and family services.

“This year, it’s been hard,” she said, adding that attending NORTEP “helped me figure out who I was.”

She says she still really has her mind set on being a teacher “because I really want to work in the north.”

According to McKay, while the NORTEP closure was underway in April, Northlands College did not tell transferring NORTEP students financial supports would be provided and there was confusion over what programs would be available to students.

She said when she heard funding was going to be available, she was mad because she had already moved on to other plans.

Now, she says she plans to attend Northlands in the coming school year.

“I just want to know why they would cut something that is so big for us Native people. Like, why this? Something that is going to help us in the future, our children,” she said.

At a Northlands board meeting in April, it was noted in the minutes related to NORTEP that “applications to date for university programming is 235, well above normal” and that the board discussed “the option of continuing with student allowances including tuition and books for the current ... students.”

By July, Northlands announced that tuition and book costs for students who were funded through NORTEP and transferring over would be covered by the college.

But it appears as if that news didn't arrive in time for some students, who had already decided to drop out.

While no official numbers are readily available, some are saying anecdotally enrolment numbers for post-secondary education in the north are down after NORTEP's closure.

NDP Advanced Education critic Vicki Mowat said there were concerns the NORTEP closure would hurt enrolment numbers and “it's obviously concerning for us to hear that there are some drop outs now.”