All Posts Tagged With: "Inuit"
Success, one student at a time
How universities are embracing the Aboriginal baby boom
Students at Lakehead University. By Andrew Tolson.
From the Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Ken MacQueen.
It’s one of those small things that’s actually very big. The University of Manitoba has a policy on smudging: the Aboriginal tradition of burning sage, sweetgrass or cedar as a way of setting a positive tone and purifying the mind. Say a love affair goes sideways, or a professor is unimpressed with your political science presentation, or it’s autumn on the reserve and here you are in Winnipeg, lonely and blue; well, retreating to a quiet place to wash yourself in the smoke of a smudge is a way to turn the page, to gain strength and clarity. The policy on smudging and pipe ceremonies is the product of deep bureaucratic thought, legal consultation and many meetings, because, of course, there are no-smoking laws. So, it’s complicated.
Nunavut gets first business degree
Inuit can train as accountants without moving south
Nunavut’s students will finally be able to get a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration without moving south.
That means they will be able to become Chartered Accountants without leaving their own territory, possibly increasing the likelihood they will stay and work in the territory.
The four-year program will build on the existing two-year Management Studies diploma program. The school will partner with a Southern Canadian university on curriculum.
Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit received a $150,000 charitable donation from the Royal Bank of Canada to fund the new program over three years, starting with 15 to 20 students in 2012.
Nunavut program creates Inuit leaders for Inuit schools
UPEI graduate program in education aims to train educators locally
Meeka Kakudluk is still struggling to relearn the Inuit culture she lost a half-century ago in schools where southern ways and the English language dominated.
This week, when she and her 20 classmates receive the first Master of Education degrees ever granted in Nunavut, she’ll do her part to ensure that in the future, Inuit schools – and students – are led by Inuit educators.
“The more they see Inuit leading, the more encouraged (students) will be to do the same,” said Kakudluk.
Kakudluk, 56, has been a teacher in Nunavut for 31 years, but that career will turn a whole page on Wednesday when she graduates with a brand-new Master of Education degree.
Offered through the University of Prince Edward Island, the program is designed to begin filling principal’s offices throughout the territory with educators who are members of the same community that they serve.
“There’s a need for Inuit leadership in the school system,” said Fiona Walton, the UPEI faculty member who set up and oversaw the three-year program.
Although there are more than 100 Inuit teachers with undergraduate degrees now teaching in Nunavut, the great majority of vice-principals and principals still come from the south. The UPEI program — the first graduate-level program of any kind offered in Nunavut – is intended to eventually change that.
It’s easier for an Inuk to understand community needs, said Dinah Kavik, who teaches in Sanikiluaq. As well, parents may feel more comfortable speaking with a principal in Inuktitut.
“The Inuit know their people,” said Kavik, a newly minted MEd.
The graduates enter the system at a crucial time for Nunavut.
Although Premier Eva Aariak has identified education as a top priority for her government, the territory’s graduation rate is dismal 25 per cent and a recent report concluded the system produces too many graduates fluent neither in English nor Inuktitut.
Gov. Gen. pushes university for Inuit
In unprecedented move, GG calls for change in government policy.
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean is making a rare break from ceremonial circumspection to publicly urge the government to build a university for Canada’s Inuit.
In a vice-regal plunge into policy advocacy, Jean proposes a university in the Arctic so Inuit youth can get a degree close to home and benefit from economic activity expected in their region.
Canada’s claims to sovereignty over the North will be, she says, nothing but an “empty shell” unless the area’s inhabitants participate in northern development.
The Governor General has begun promoting the idea with government officials, and sources say they expect her to raise it with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Jean was inspired by an experiment in Norway and plans to use what could be her final year in office – and her time after leaving Rideau Hall – to champion the idea that Canada can do it too.
Jean says an Arctic university could help produce the engineers that mining companies will need, and inspire young Inuit who might otherwise abandon dreams of a career in other fields such as medicine or law.
She says industry could also be conscripted in the effort – and suggests that mining firms, for instance, could be required to devote a slice of their resource revenues to building a new school.
None of this is government policy, but the Queen’s representative offered a series of arguments for an Arctic university in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“So all of Canada is now looking to the North and saying, ‘It’s important to defend our sovereignty in the North, it’s important to deal with changes from climate change, the Northwest Passage will soon be a maritime highway, it’s important to explore the abundant natural resources – gas, uranium, diamonds, gold,’ ” Jean said at Rideau Hall.
“That’s all very good – but at the same time we absolutely cannot forget that this sovereignty is an empty shell, the development of the North will be an empty shell, if it happens without the participation of northern people . . . .
“We need to build viable, healthy, durable communities there.”
Audit: Native education fund is a mess
Feds aren’t tracking $300 million per year in aboriginal funding, says report
The Harper government flunks accountability, says a new audit that blasts lax controls over almost $300 million meant to help native students get to college or university.The bruising report calls for tighter tracking of that cash and says funding has not kept pace with tuition hikes.
Ottawa does not trace how many native kids beat staggering odds to make it through high school only to be denied help to go on.
It spent $292 million last year to help 23,000 students — that’s down from a high of 27,000 funding recipients a decade ago.
“No analysis has been conducted by program management at headquarters on the impact these factors are having” on the Post-secondary Education Program, the audit says.
Instead, it has been left to the national Assembly of First Nations to estimate that more than 10,000 qualified students are on waiting lists.
“It is important that clear and appropriate performance measures, results indicators and targets be developed,” the internal Indian Affairs audit concludes.
“Sound performance measures allow management to track progress, measure results and make ongoing program adjustments to improve results and achieve objectives.”
Conservatives hail higher education as a top priority in their efforts to ultimately raise native living standards.
But auditors found the post-secondary program is hobbled by lax reporting, growing education costs and haphazard disbursement. The result is glaring gaps across the country.
In 2007-2008, the audit says, per capita amounts disbursed to First Nations ranged from $1,609 for each individual aged 18 to 34 in Ontario compared with $941 in the Atlantic region.
“No rationale was found to support the different allocation methods used in the different regions,” it says.
Moreover, the per capita amounts do not reflect fluctuating needs on reserves and are considered “flexible.” Auditors found surplus post-secondary funds in some communities are then spent on other needs — while students in other parts of the country go without.
- The Canadian Press
