Quebec ombudsman sounds alarm on state of Inuit education
Quebec is failing miserably at providing Inuit children with access to quality education, according to a report released Wednesday.
Classes are regularly cancelled for lack of teachers, children are forced to learn math and science in their second or sometimes third language and special-needs students linger for years without services.
To make matters worse, the report found that some children live in such overcrowded homes that they “sleep in shifts” most nights and can barely stay awake at school.
This, according to the study by Quebec’s ombudsman, is the state of education in the 14 Inuit communities that comprise the Nunavik region.
“The ministry is not giving (the Inuit) school board the tools to succeed,” said Marie Rinfret, the province’s ombudsman. “The ministry is adopting a restrictive vision of its role.”
Roughly 80 per cent of students in Nunavik drop out before finishing high school. That’s four times higher than the provincial average.
For the Kativik Ilisarniliriniq school board, which oversees ed- ucation in the region, the report confirms what they already see. For example that the problem begins well before children make their way to class in the morning.
The report says about one in three students lives in overcrowded housing and one in five lives in a home that needs major repairs.
Nigel Adams grew up in the village of Kangiqsujuaq, where he shared a tiny house with nine other people. He says simple things like doing homework or finding a quiet place to read was incredibly difficult.
“There was no privacy, lots of noise, lots of arguing. It’s a tough situation to come up in,” Adams said in an August interview with the Montreal Gazette. “And when you grow up in a place where people struggle with addiction and depression and you lose your friends to suicide, it can be tough to block it out and focus (on school).”
Of the 14 recommendations outlined in Wednesday’s ombudsman’s report, the very first is for the federal, provincial and regional governments to have an action plan on housing by the year 2020.
Two major steps, according to Rinfret, would be to train additional Inuit teachers so that children can learn in Inuktitut and to sensitize non-Inuit teachers to the realities of working in the North.
The turnover rate for non-Indigenous teachers in the North is notoriously high.
Sevim Ilgun, who grew up in Quaqtaq, remembers teachers burning out midway through the year but being replaced fairly quickly. In smaller communities like hers, it wasn’t uncommon for children from many grades to be taught in the same classroom.
“The older kids never welcomed us or if younger kids were smart they were bullied by older kids,” said Ilgun, who recalls being packed into a classroom with children from three different grades.
The report comes just after the newly elected Coalition Avenir Québec officially took office. Like all of Quebec’s major political parties, the CAQ did not make Inuit education a priority of its campaign.
Even so, the president of Kativik sees the election of a new government as a chance at a fresh start.
“With the election of a new provincial government, this report provides a strong basis for Education Minister Jean-François Roberge to engage positively with the school board and the Inuit of Nunavik,” said school board president Robert Watt. “I am hopeful that the momentum gained in our recent dealings with the (education ministry) will be maintained through this leadership transition.”
The momentum Watt speaks of comes from new funds allocated, earlier this year, for renovations and construction within Kativik’s 17 schools. The Liberal government also pledged $44 million to boost housing construction in Nunavik, last spring.
Kativik receives $26 million each year from Quebec. The school board was created in 1975 as part of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, as a way for communities to regain control of their own education system.
As affirmed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings and in interviews, generations suffered abuse and neglect in government-run day and residential schools in the North. Many of the children enrolled in Nunavik’s schools today are the descendants of residential-school survivors.
Despite some dire findings by the ombudsman, there is a silver lining. More Inuit students are enrolled in CEGEP and university classes today than at any point in Quebec history. Last year, Kativik worked closely with John Abbott College to launch Nunavik Sivunitsavut — a project where Inuit CEGEP students come south to take the same college courses as their non-Indigenous peers but from an Inuit perspective.
There are also success stories like the Natturaliit hockey team in Kuujjuaq. The program makes students earn their way onto the squad by doing well in class.
“A couple of years back, you’d see maybe 10 high school graduates each year (in Kuujjuaq),” Eric Lemire, a graduate of the program, said in June.
“Now it’s up to 20, 25, 30. It’s pretty cool.”