2nd Meeting of the National Committee on Inuit Education * Ottawa * January 13, 2010

Welcome to our second meeting of the National Committee on Inuit Education. I hope you all had a good holiday and I wish you and your families health and happiness for this new year.

 

At our last meeting we agreed on a vision for our group, so I think it is worthwhile to remind ourselves why we are meeting this week. Here is our shared vision for Inuit education.

 

 

At each and every event I attend across our country, and overseas I reflect on the challenges that lie ahead for Inuit. How as leaders... do we clear the way for our children to participate in this rapidly changing world? And each time I reflect on this question I return to our education systems, and the need to put the forces in place to get our kids into school...keep them there... and graduate them with the skills to participate in society as an Inuk anywhere in the world.

 

Some of you have been working at improving outcomes in Inuit education for years, and that is why your expertise is needed at this national table.

 

When I met with Prime Minister Harper in Iqaluit last year, he asked me a very simple question: ‘Why are most of the people I see working in jobs here, non-Inuit?”. While nothing is simple in explaining the complexities of our modern world, one thing is certain... we are not graduating enough children from our schools...or at a level equivalent to non Aboriginal students …. and we, as leaders of this generation... owe it to the next generation to change this reality.

 

As I said to you in our last meeting Canada has never had national goals for Inuit education. Inuit are spread across two territories and two provinces and we have never collaborated on setting national goals. The Apology opened the door to setting national goals, and now we must thrust our foot through that door with the work of this Committee.

 

When I addressed the House and Commons and the Senate in June 2008 I made it very clear that we would measure the sincerity of the Apology by the concrete actions of Government. What I meant by that was that Canadians expect measurable changes when their Government apologizes for failed policies. Those changes, in the form of new policies and programs, must result in the improvement of living conditions and the well being of Inuit. 

 

Signing the Education Accord was an important first step in that direction. It has created an opportunity for us to seize. Now it is up to us, as the Committee members, to deliver. We have accepted the mandate to produce a guiding document that has to be innovative, evidence-based, and provide clear directions for implementation. This Strategy will then be used to advocate and negotiate for specific investments in education and, very importantly, can be a barometer to measure the sincerity of the Apology. This is a big responsibility.

 

It is critical to the success of our work around the National Strategy that your ideas and your experience are reflected in the final document. If this Strategy is to succeed it will be because excitement has been created at the officials’ level. And that means you. The time for changing the course of Education for Inuit is NOW and we have to get excited about it NOW.

 

The final document should knit together our voices and considered thinking into a draft Strategy that we then adjust and fashion into a final product. That is why your voice and experience is counted on with the Regional Scans that we agreed to do at our last meeting.

 

We must make time to do this.

 

When I was a young girl the reality for parents was that sending a kid to school was the same as losing your child. Today things are different. We must provide an opportunity for our children to become educated. If our kids are to move with confidence into the world then they must be well educated Inuit.

 

Still today many of our families don’t necessarily see school as a positive thing and this must change.

 

This morning, we will be examining the issues surrounding mobilizing parents.

 

And this afternoon, We will be examining the issues surrounding capacity building. Building success into our school system has to mean that our children enter a daycare or a school and recognize symbols of our culture, hear their first language and see role models in their educators and administrators.

 

To understand the challenges that lay before us ...in knowing what building blocks are important for success, we need to collect and share information to feedback into our decision making processes. Tomorrow we will be examining the issues surrounding collecting and sharing information on Inuit education.

        

Since our first meeting in September, we have made progress on our Research Plan by completing a literature review on parent mobilization and one for capacity building. These documents will be examined at this meeting.

 

Statistics Canada has provided additional information on Inuit education data and gap identification.

                  

Some of you have been able to identify additional resources to help us fund this research and I thank you for that important commitment to this process.

 

During the next two days we will be hearing and discussing information on three themes in Inuit education. At the end of these discussions we must shape our thinking into strategic actions for each theme.

 

We are at the mid point of our work. By April we need to have all the inputs into the six themes. This includes all the literature reviews and the regional scans. Katherine and Lorraine must leave this meeting with instructions, direction and content to begin writing around the first three themes.

 

 

So let’s get to it.