National Committee on Inuit Education

We met this week in Ottawa for the third meeting of the National Committee on Education. There is a terrific group of people who sit with me on this committee representing Inuit organizations and provincial, territorial and federal governments. We also welcomed new representatives from Pauktuutit, Makivik Corp. and Quebec’s Ministry of Education.

This week’s meeting was perhaps the most important to date because it gave us a chance to frame out some bold strokes and strategic actions for our National Strategy on Inuit Education.

Our objective has always been to build on good work that is being done in each region and to scale these successes across Inuit Nunangat. The participation of education representatives from across our four regions allows us to hear about the thoughtful approaches that have already resulted in positive change in our schools. We have also looked at some promising practices elsewhere in the indigenous world.

This is the very first time that information on our education systems been brought together in one place. Together with the recommendations of our Education Summit in 2008, our work represents the most comprehensive collection of information on Inuit education that has ever been assembled.

These are exciting times and we are daring to dream big. This is an opportunity for Inuit to define a new era in education in a national strategy we plan to release this summer, and we are hopeful about the possibilities that this process can bring about.