Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Aboriginal Peoples
Issue 21 - Evidence - March 23, 2011
OTTAWA, Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples met this day at 6:47 p.m. to examine the federal government's constitutional, treaty, political and legal responsibilities to First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples and other matters generally relating to the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada (topic: issues concerning First Nations education).
Senator Lillian Eva Dyck (Deputy Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Deputy Chair: Good evening. I would like to welcome all honourable senators and members of the public who are watching this meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples on CPAC or on the web.
My name is Dr. Lillian Dyck, and I am from Saskatchewan. I am the deputy chair of the committee, and I am sitting in for Senator Gerry St. Germain, who is the chair of the committee and who is unable to be with us this evening.
The mandate of this committee is to examine legislation and matters relating to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada generally. Given this mandate, the committee has undertaken a study to examine possible strategies for reform, concerning First Nations primary and secondary education, with a view to improving outcomes. Among other things, the study has focused on the following: First, tripartite education agreements; second, governance and delivery structures; and, third, possible legislative frameworks.
This evening we were meant to hear from two witnesses, the Minister and the Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, from the Government of the Northwest Territories. I believe the minister has been delayed due to circumstances concerning his flights.
Before hearing from the witness who is here, I would like to introduce members of this committee who are present for this meeting. On my left is Senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas from New Brunswick and Senator Larry Campbell from British Columbia; and on my right is Senator Nancy Ruth from Ontario, Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen from New Brunswick, Senator Nancy Greene Raine from British Columbia and Senator Jacques Demers from Quebec.
Members of the committee, please help me in welcoming our witness from the Government of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Dan Daniels, Deputy Minister, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Daniels, if you would proceed with your presentation, you will then have an opportunity after to answer questions from the senators.
Dan Daniels, Deputy Minister, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Government of the Northwest Territories: Thank you, and good evening, senators and committee members. First, I want to convey regrets on behalf of Minister Lafferty, who is unable to join us this evening. He was en route, but his flight has been delayed. He will be arriving in Ottawa later than he was hoping.
My name is Dan Daniels, and I am Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for the Government of the Northwest Territories. First, I would like to thank you for providing the opportunity for the Government of the Northwest Territories to make a presentation on the educational attainment of Aboriginal opportunities. I understand the focus of your work is on First Nation learners, but it is important to ensure that the needs of all Aboriginal learners are considered as we move forward as a nation to make improvements in educational achievement.
This is particularly the case in places such as the Northwest Territories, where we have one public education system under the mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories for all residents, including First Nations, Inuit, Metis and non-Aboriginal residents.
I will begin by giving some demographics of the Northwest Territories.
We have 33 communities, the largest is the city of Yellowknife, with a population of approximately 19,500 people, and the smallest community is Kakisa with approximately 55 residents. It may interest you to know that the school in Kakisa has only eight students this year. With such a small population, you will understand that it is unlikely that we will see services such as child care centres developed in a community of that size.
There is no or limited road access to the majority of our communities in the NWT. Many are only accessible by road during a brief winter-road season. The remoteness and isolation have a great impact on many things in the community, including the availability of program materials. Facility development or activities requiring resources require detailed planning well in advance to place equipment orders for arrival by barge once a year, or residents must face the high cost of flying in these materials and other supplies.
The NWT has a relatively healthy employment rate and low unemployment, but the territory-wide nature of these numbers masks the sometimes very high unemployment rate in our smaller communities.
The NWT population is approximately 50 per cent Aboriginal, with our smaller communities being primarily Aboriginal. There are 11 official languages in the Northwest Territories, and we are seeing declines in Aboriginal language use by our young people in many regions. Approximately 65 per cent of our school population is Aboriginal. The NWT has 49 schools that are administered by eight education authorities. We have two reserves in the NWT, and their education services are provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories through the education authorities.
We have three settled land claims in the Northwest Territories, and one self-government agreement in place. Other self- government agreements are in negotiations with the Aboriginal people. Jurisdiction in education is a mandate area that the one existing self-government may choose to draw down, and it is one that can be expected to be drawn down by emerging self-governments in the future.
Your committee has identified a number of questions to serve as guidelines for witnesses to speak to, and I will address some but not all of them, bearing in mind that the scope of the mandate for education in the Northwest Territories is different from those in the provinces when it comes to First Nations and Aboriginal people.
What are the key challenges that have been identified by your committee to providing quality primarily and secondary education to First Nations learners, and what are some of the key opportunities? I will speak to these questions.
I believe that the NWT faces many challenges that are similar to challenges faced elsewhere in Southern Canada. I will outline a number of these challenges, not all of them but some of the key ones.
The first challenge is the attendance rate for Aboriginal students, which is significantly lower than for non- Aboriginal students, and this starts in the first years of schooling. By the time students reach grade 10, many will have missed the equivalent of two years of schooling. This is a lot of schooling to miss, and many students have difficulty catching up in later years.
The second challenge is parental engagement. Because many adults were not able to complete high school during the residential school system, a number of parents have not acquired the skills, knowledge and confidence in education that would enable them to support the education of their children. In many cases, education is seen as strictly the responsibility of the schools.
The third challenge relates to costs. The remoteness and isolation of many of our communities means that the cost of delivering education programs and services is high and becomes even more challenging in small communities with small student populations. This can mean that it is a challenge for schools to offer a full array of courses to students whose needs and interests can be quite diverse. The specialized supports that a student might need are not always readily available in a number of our smaller communities due to the costs and difficulty in recruiting those professionals.
The fourth challenge is continuity. Teacher turnover averages about 20 per cent in the NWT each year, and is higher in the small and remote communities. A small community that has four or six educators can experience 100 per cent turnover in some years. This means that students lack the continuity of relationships with teachers who understand their learning needs and interests.
The fifth challenge is the relevancy of curriculum and resources. It is a challenge to ensure that the curriculum content and resources are meaningful for students. We have historically relied on curriculum and resources from Southern Canada, and these can often be lacking in material that is significant or meaningful for northern students.
The sixth and final key challenge is access to the Internet. Most NWT students do not have the same type of access to the Internet that is available in other parts of Canada. Consequently, as use of the World Wide Web for educational purposes increases, northern students are placed at an increasing educational disadvantage to their southern counterparts.
Part of your question was about the best ways to address these challenges. We are taking a number of actions to address these challenges. While a number of actions have been under way for several years, we have also undertaken a new engagement process to ensure that everyone understands that they have a significant role in supporting the education of students. A new initiative, called the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative has been launched to promote the active involvement of educators, Aboriginal governments, communities and families in supporting the education of young people. An outcome of this initiative will be that each region and community will develop education plans that tackle the challenges that are most significant for their region or community.
The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative has launched promotional activities that send clear and strong messages to students and parents on the need to improve attendance and the impact that poor attendance will have on education outcomes. Emerging and future initiatives will support four broad thematic areas including early childhood development — school readiness — literacy, student and family support, and Aboriginal language and curriculum development.
The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative respects the premise upon which our education system is built in the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories provides the legislative and funding frameworks for education in the NWT, and we set standards for curriculum, graduation requirements and teacher qualifications. The education authorities have the mandate to deliver education programs and services for students within their respective communities. The education authorities have the power to allocate resources in a manner that they deem best to respond to the education needs of their students.
In recognition that the foundation for learning comes well before students enter the formal school system, we are also reviewing our early childhood development framework so that we can make appropriate adjustments to improve early childhood development supports including better preparing young children to enter the formal education system. We currently provide support to early childhood operators to run early childhood programs including language nests, and we provide support for child and family literacy support programs. However, we still find, in too many cases, that children are entering the school system lacking some of the essential basic skills that will enable them to succeed in schooling.
Successful education is largely determined by the quality of educators in the schools. We have a teacher education strategy designed to encourage more Aboriginal northerners to become teachers so that they can support a culture-based education system and bring greater stability to our teaching force, particularly in our small and remote communities. The program is delivered by Aurora College, our only public post-secondary institution in the Northwest Territories, and the college works closely with the University of Saskatchewan. We have reintroduced a community-based education program in an attempt to attract more students from smaller communities into the program.
The teacher education program is linked closely to the Aboriginal language and culture instructor program, ALCIP. The ALCIP is a two-year diploma program designed to provide educators with the skills to teach Aboriginal language and culture in the school system. Students may attend this program on a full- or part-time basis.
We also recognize the importance of ongoing professional development for educators. We provide in-service support to educators so that they can implement new and revised curriculum and resources. As part of the collective agreement we have with the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, we also commit funding toward professional development. The agreement calls for 2.25 per cent of teaching salaries to be pooled for professional development of teachers.
As part of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, we have also implemented mandatory cultural orientation for all educators at the start of each school year. This initiative helps teachers become oriented to the communities and cultures in which they will teach and provides them with greater knowledge and understanding of their students. For a number of years now, we have also supported the NWT Teacher Induction Program, in which experienced teachers are matched with beginner teachers in each school so that the new teachers can have supports that will help them to adjust to the demands of the teaching profession and to become acquainted with the communities in which they will be working.
We also have the Educational Leadership Program; it is mandatory for all principals to complete this program if they wish to continue as principals in our schools. The program is designed to develop the educational leadership of principals and covers topics such as the culture-based learning, community engagement, culturally responsive schools and school improvement planning, among others.
To help manage the high cost of program and service delivery, we are also looking at alternative ways of delivering education programs through distance learning, including the Internet. As I mentioned earlier, access to the Internet is a challenge in many of our communities. One project we have underway is to determine the effectiveness of redirecting Internet traffic for our schools off the government's main pipe for Internet traffic. Early indications are promising for providing more Internet access to schools.
Accountability is another key aspect for ensuring that the education system is responding to the needs of students. To that end, all schools are required to develop a school improvement plans that demonstrate the strategic actions they are taking to meet the education needs of students in their schools.
Despite the many initiatives to improve our northern education system, we continue to face a number of challenges in meeting the education needs of Aboriginal students. Some of these are due to the ongoing effects of the residential school era, and others are due to the high cost of providing programs and services to small and remote communities where student numbers might be quite small.
With respect to tripartite agreements, the Government of the Northwest Territories is not involved in tripartite agreements because we have the full mandate for education in the Northwest Territories. Nonetheless, if there are national programs that help support the education achievement of First Nations students, we would be interested in seeing how these can be of benefit to Aboriginal students in the Northwest Territories. This is particularly important for any of the Aboriginal governments in the NWT that choose to draw down the mandate for education through their self-government agreements.
I appreciate the opportunity to make a presentation this evening and be allowed to provide an overview of the key education challenges and initiatives that we have in place to improve the education outcomes for Aboriginal students in the Northwest Territories.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Daniels. If any senators would like to pose a question, please let us know. I will start with a few general questions.
You were talking about the complexity of the communities in the Northwest Territories, that you have a number of small communities versus the largest city, which is Yellowknife. Would you say that the majority of your communities are small and that your biggest difficulty is dealing with those communities that are located at great distances from each other so that it is hard to get the proper facilities, teachers and actual structure to deliver kindergarten to grade 8?
Mr. Daniels: Yes, it is definitely a challenge. Our total population in the Northwest Territories is about 42,000 people. Approximately half those people live in Yellowknife. There are a number of other larger regional centres, including Fort Smith, Inuvik and Hay River, which are the next three largest. Definitely the majority of our communities have fewer than 1,000 residents, and the remoteness and the isolation of a number of communities do make it a challenge.
There are also some advantages to having small schools because teachers get to spend more time with a smaller number of students in some communities. It has some disadvantages as well in terms of not having a wide array of courses or education or teaching supports that might be available in a larger school environment.
The Deputy Chair: You were talking about including culture and language in your curriculum. You mentioned 11 Aboriginal languages. Is there one dominant language? Do you see the education system trying to accommodate all 11 languages, or will you have to make a choice?
Mr. Daniels: I should clarify that we have 11 official languages. Nine are Aboriginal, along with English and French. English is the dominant language in the NWT. We do have a francophone school board. Of the 9 Aboriginal languages, I would say that the Tlicho language is the healthiest. A number of the other languages have very few speakers. We are making efforts to develop Aboriginal language curriculum that could be used in kindergarten to grade 9. It is a challenge to attract people into the Aboriginal language and culture instructor program because very few people speak the language. We need to provide some of the essential language skills and foundation before we can build some of those education resources that can work in our schools.
Senator Campbell: It is a long way from Yellowknife to Ottawa, and I appreciate the time you have taken to come here. My question has to do with the Inuit Education Accord and the National Committee on Inuit Education. Is the NWT part of that?
Mr. Daniels: Yes, we are part of the Inuit Education Accord. A strategy is being developed. The working group is completing some ongoing work toward the finalization of that strategy.
Senator Campbell: How many Inuit people live in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Daniels: About 13 per cent of our student population is of Inuit descent, and our student population is roughly 9,000 in total in the NWT.
Senator Campbell: How close is this to coming to fruition as an ongoing program?
Mr. Daniels: On the strategy for the Inuit Education Accord, the working group is working on finalizing that strategy. It will likely identify a number of investment areas that need to be made. Part of the challenge right now for the committee is to identify an implementation plan for how those different initiatives might come to fruition.
Senator Campbell: Is it close?
Mr. Daniels: I think it still has a way to go yet before it is finalized. We expect that in the next two to three months.
Senator Campbell: I ask that because the information I have is that the committee met three times between September 2009 and April 2010, and now we are into 2011. If the strategy is finalized within two or three months, then that would be good.
One of the issues is always resources. Is who supplies the resources for this initiative a major ongoing issue?
Mr. Daniels: For education in the Northwest Territories, the funding has come through transfer funding from the federal government. Our government, in turn, votes on the allocation of resources to various departments for different purposes. Our government would vote on how much to allocate for education.
Senator Campbell: Money comes from the federal government to the Government of the Northwest Territories earmarked for education, is that correct?
Mr. Daniels: It is not earmarked for education; it comes in a general pool.
Senator Campbell: Is it just a pot?
Mr. Daniels: Yes; then our government votes on the allocation of the resources from the pool of money that comes from the federal government and our own revenues as well.
Senator Campbell: Do you think that is an adequate way to fund education?
Mr. Daniels: The model is a good one in the sense that the decisions on the allocation of the resources are being made by people in the Northwest Territories. As we move toward self-government, that is certainly the direction that we will be taking in the future.
Senator Campbell: That is good to hear.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Thank you for coming. When I think of 33 communities and 20,000 people, it is incomprehensible. I am from Toronto, so it is hard for me to get my head around a village or a community with eight students and staff that do not stay. I cannot even imagine this.
If you had a magic wand, what would be your top three priorities?
Mr. Daniels: First would be improved student attendance because getting students to school will make a huge difference for us. The second priority would be to ensure that we have a stable teaching force in the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned, we have a significant turnover. We do rely heavily on teachers from other parts of Canada to fulfill our teaching needs. The third priority — and I am not putting these in any order — would be increased access to Internet service provisions for our schools.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Does the community college have a teacher training course?
Mr. Daniels: Yes, Aurora College offers an undergraduate degree program that is associated with the University of Saskatchewan.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Would this be for all levels of education or is it primary school development stuff?
Mr. Daniels: It is targeted for kindergarten to grade 9 in our education system.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Of the students entering that, how many would be Aboriginal- or Native-speaking?
Mr. Daniels: The bulk of the students going into that program are Aboriginal. It is in the neighbourhood of 90 per cent. It is not an exclusive program. It is open to other students from the North to attend. In addition to students attending the teacher education program through Aurora College, we have students that opt to attend teacher education programs elsewhere in the country.
Senator Nancy Ruth: I have made an assumption — please feel free to correct me — that for employment services, the provision of services is actually a major employer within the NWT. Is that correct?
Mr. Daniels: The public service is the number one employer in the Northwest Territories. There is some significant employment in the mining industry and in transportation as well. Tourism is another big area.
Senator Nancy Ruth: I heard that the NWT had reserved 10 per cent of the diamonds to be cut and polished in the NWT and that you had brought in Armenians or some people to teach how to cut and polish diamonds, but it had not been as successful as had been hoped. Is this so; and if so, do you know why it did not work?
Mr. Daniels: We have had a number of agreements with different cutting and polishing companies that have been set up in the Northwest Territories. Part of the challenge is the cost of living in the Northwest Territories, and trying to pay the workers a meaningful wage while also keeping the cost of your finished product in a competitive position in a global environment. Quite often, the companies find that they can do the work for a lot less cost in other parts of the world.
Senator Nancy Ruth: How many other attempts are there on the part of the NWT to bring a trade in that would not be in the service sector and that might work? I am fishing around the question: What are you training these people for, and what is the future?
Mr. Daniels: Part of the work is definitely tied to the diamond mining industry, the underground mining and so on. Aurora College delivers a number of training programs that prepare people to enter the mining profession. We have a memorandum of understanding with the diamond mines in an effort to recruit, retain and attract more northerners into the mining profession.
Socio-economic agreements have been signed between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the mining companies. The Aboriginal governments have signed similar types of agreements with the mining companies. These are largely intended to encourage employment and business development that support the mining industry.
The other major initiative that is definitely on our horizon is the prospect of a Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. That is some years away yet. However, we would undertake a similar approach to that taken with the development of mines, in that we would pursue agreements with the developers to ensure that northerners benefit from this from an employment standpoint as well as from the perspective of a business development opportunity.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Let me get this picture: Without the natural resources, there is no way for business to grow. The government makes these arrangements, whether it is pipelines, diamond mines or the old gold mines, to benefit the population of the Northwest Territories. However, to grow a tax base that could be based on small businesses, it will not be on pizza parlours.
Mr. Daniels: One of the challenges we face is finding ways to increase our own tax revenues in the NWT, especially in the last couple of years with the downturn in the global economy. It has affected our ability to generate increased tax revenues.
Senator Nancy Ruth: They are lucky to have you as a deputy minister. It is tough.
Mr. Daniels: Thank you.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: Welcome. You mentioned in your transcript that you had 20 challenges, and you just named a few. We have heard from many Aboriginal witnesses. They always mention a 2 per cent cap. I do not know if that applies in your area. However, if it does, and if it were lifted, would it increase the students' graduation rates or improve your schools?
Mr. Daniels: Thank you for the question. The 2 per cent issue is not one that affects us in the NWT. I understand that the 2 per cent cap is more directed to the schools on reserves and through the bands. Therefore, it is not one that affects us in the Northwest Territories.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: Within the 33 communities that you mentioned, how many schools are successful with the rate of students attending and how many are not? Also, what are the reasons?
Mr. Daniels: We are seeing increased levels of success, and part of where we are seeing that is in our smaller communities and among our Aboriginal students. That is where there is the most significant growth and the most graduates from high school.
The primary factor in that increased success in recent years has been a policy that the government of the Northwest Territories implemented in the mid-1990s. Until then, we continued to operate a residential school system in the Northwest Territories. At that time, there was a decision by the government to no longer operate residential schools and to bring education up to grade 12 in the communities to the greatest extent possible. Nearly all of our schools now offer a full grade 12 program. Of the 33 communities, we still have 5 or 6 that do not have a full grade 12 program. Because some of the smaller communities do not have enough of a student body, students there will attend school within the region in a larger centre. They would be home-boarded with houseparents rather than in a residential school environment.
That has been the most significant factor in the change that we have been seeing in recent years. It is very promising. We still have many things that we want to do to improve the system. However, we believe that we are on the right track.
Senator Demers: Thank you for being here, Mr. Daniels. You mentioned student attendance. Is there a lack of motivation for these young men and women as they get older because they do not see a future for themselves? Are they asking themselves if it is so important to go to school, and if they go to school, what will they get out of it? Is that a fair question to you?
Mr. Daniels: That is certainly a factor. Many complex factors are at play that affect student attendance such as the lack of economic opportunity in some of the smaller communities. Limited employment opportunities can certainly be discouraging for families and for young children if they do not see what the payoff is in the long run.
Senator Hubley: Thank you for being here. I apologize for not being present at the full hearing. My question concerns the educational gap. I hope that has not been asked.
In 2004, the Auditor General reported that it would take 18 years to close the gap in the educational attainment levels of First Nations students and their Canadian counterparts.
Does that same gap exist in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Daniels: We have a gap in education outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. We have made significant progress. I like to be optimistic and think that it will not take 18 years. We can close that gap in a much shorter period of time.
We need to do a number of things to close that gap. Some of it starts with our early childhood programs and a very strong focus on literacy. Part of it is focused on building strong relationships between the schools, parents, families and other people in the community so that it is seen as a shared responsibility. Everyone has a role to play and everyone has a stake in improving the education outcomes of Aboriginal students.
It is not just good for the Aboriginal students themselves. It makes good economic and business sense for us in the Northwest Territories and for us as a nation.
Senator Hubley: How do you assess the closing of that gap? Are tests done on all Canadian children as well as those in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Daniels: There is nothing at the national level. The provinces and territories participate in some international tests, but not all of them.
We assess it by looking at our graduation numbers between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students, and we see that gap. In 2004, we introduced some standardized testing because we knew that to wait until grade 12 would be late to examine the differences. We introduced exams that are borrowed from the Government of Alberta because much of our curriculum is founded on the Alberta system.
We introduced the Alberta Achievement Tests, which test language arts and math abilities in students in grades 3, 6 and 9. We are seeing those differences in the education outcomes as early as those grade levels.
Another assessment tool that we have put in place is the functional grade level assessment. This is really an assessment that is driven by teachers who make a determination on where students are performing compared to where they can be expected to be performing at that age level.
We make those comparisons. We use that data to determine what the education gap is, and we do see those gaps occurring at a very early age with students in our system.
Senator Hubley: To follow-up on the diamond mines, do they contribute to the education system through scholarships, infrastructure, et cetera? Is that part of their corporate responsibility?
Mr. Daniels: Part of it is that they have impact benefit agreements with the Aboriginal governments in the areas where the diamond mines are located. They have provided some resources to the Aboriginal governments. We are not party to those agreements, but I know some of the Aboriginal governments have used some of that money to set up scholarships, for example, to help students in school, as well as at the post-secondary level.
The diamond mines have also supported literacy. One of the diamond companies, for example, provides books to help support child and family literacy programs and makes books available to families. Others have supported infrastructure for the schools, including a centre for careers in trades and technology in Yellowknife that helps prepare students to acquire skills that they might use either in the diamond industry or to pursue trades.
The Deputy Chair: Before we proceed to Senator Raine, I would like to ask a supplementary question about the education gap. Do you see any gender differences in high school completion rates?
Mr. Daniels: The last year I have data on that shows some slight differences. Females are definitely finishing school at a higher rate than males; about 55 per cent of the graduates in 2009 were female. We also see that when looking at post-secondary enrolment numbers. We see that females are attending school at a higher rate than males.
The Deputy Chair: Could the difference in the post-secondary rates be attributed to, for example, the teacher education program, where teachers seem to be mostly females rather than males?
Mr. Daniels: Aurora College delivers a number of programs, and teacher education is one of them; social work is another program that tends to be dominated by females. Nursing is another program that is available through Aurora College, so those three might influence some of our numbers.
Senator Raine: What you are facing in the Northwest Territories is quite different from any other jurisdiction in Canada because not only do you have a vast land with one small city, Yellowknife, and many communities of varying sizes and distances, but you are also teaching Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the same classrooms. To find a curriculum and match it up to inspire them to succeed must be very challenging.
Mr. Daniels: One of our biggest challenges is meeting the different needs of students. Our communities tend to be quite inclusive, regardless of people's backgrounds. Whether they are Dene, Metis, Inuit or non-Aboriginal, because our communities are small, for the most part, people tend to identify as members of the community rather than as members of a particular group. However, in our efforts to do such things as helping to revitalize Aboriginal languages, it sometimes can become a challenge when we have small numbers in a particular school or in a particular region.
Senator Raine: We had a presenter about five or six months ago, who talked about the need for curriculum development that is relevant, especially in the remote areas, one that talks about the learning that comes from outside the school and gives value to that. That learning would come from the elders or from people learning the traditional way of living, art and all of these things. Is there any way to integrate that into your education programs?
Mr. Daniels: We definitely do that in a number of different ways. In the NWT, we have the Dene Kede curriculum, which is an attempt to infuse the Dene culture into our overall approach for various curricula that we use. We also have another curricula, Inuuqatigiit, designed more for the Inuit students. Therefore, we have those two curricula frameworks that we use.
We are doing a lot of work to develop an Aboriginal language curriculum; we have a bit of work yet to do on that. We have a couple of regions that have been piloting an Aboriginal language curriculum on a trial basis, and we hope to build off those initiatives.
We also have a particular graduation requirement. I mentioned earlier that much of our curriculum follows the Alberta system, and students that graduate from high school have to write Alberta departmental exams to graduate. One of the unique aspects of our graduation requirement is that students have to complete a northern studies course in high school to graduate. That northern studies course is meant to ensure that every student has some understanding and knowledge of the Northwest Territories, including the Aboriginal cultures.
Senator Raine: That is a very important thing to be doing because there are many things happening in the Northwest Territories right now with the MacKenzie Valley pipeline. Many studies are happening to analyze the watersheds and how they are being protected, along with the biology, zoology and geology.
That requires post-secondary education, but if it can be related to people who live on the land and can appreciate the indigenous knowledge that they have, then you can perhaps inspire some people to become involved in that. Is that happening?
Mr. Daniels: Yes, a number of our schools do many on-the-land programs. Many schools will take students out on the land and have elders from the communities or other Aboriginal people from the community who are deemed to have a lot of knowledge about the land and the culture so that students have a chance to be on the land.
It also gives students an opportunity to demonstrate that they have other sources of knowledge from their own experiences with their families so that the educators can appreciate that students do have a knowledge base. Maybe it is not always reflected in some of the academic requirements of the schools, but the students do have a knowledge base that is meaningful for their communities and their cultures.
Senator Raine: This is a little off topic, but I remember in my own education having a teacher who was an older man, probably 20 years older than all the other teachers, but he had spent some time in the North. We would deviate from the curriculum all the time as he would tell us stories about the North and how vast it was and what the people and the land were like. He painted a picture for me, as someone who lived six miles from the U.S. border, that I still find intriguing.
It is important to have the people who are out there doing things also to be involved in education. Does your education training program welcome people who have had a career in other fields to become teachers?
Mr. Daniels: Yes, it does. The teacher education program is open to anyone who wants to enter. They have to meet certain academic requirements to complete the degree program. However, we are open to people from different walks of life to work in our school system.
Sometimes it is a difficult to recruit a teacher with a particular background. Therefore, we are able to provide a specialized certificate that recognizes the unique skills that someone can bring to the classroom. If they are not a trained educator, they will often be matched up with a certified teacher to work in our schools.
Senator Raine: That is great. You have to get creative to get the right people in place.
Mr. Daniels: That is correct.
Senator Raine: Thank you. We certainly find it fascinating and hope our report can add to it.
In the recent budget, it was just announced that there would be a forgiveness of student loans for doctors and nurses willing to relocate in remote areas. Do you think that could be used in the education field as well as a way to entice more teachers, or is it better to grow your own?
Mr. Daniels: Our focus is on trying to grow our own, not only for the stability factor but also to ensure that our education system reflects the culture of our communities.
Offering incentives for people to go into remote or isolated communities is always something that we welcome. It is a part of something that we do ourselves through our own NWT Student Financial Assistance Program. We have a series of grants and loans available to students who want to attend post-secondary education. Some of those loans are forgivable if people come back to the Northwest Territories. The rate of forgiveness is higher for students if they go into our more isolated communities.
Senator Nancy Ruth: When you said "access to Internet," what, in its broadband complexities, were you thinking of? How does that relate to education?
Mr. Daniels: To have fibre optics would be a challenge because of our geography. We must find other ways of ensuring that we have access to the Internet. In many areas of the country, the graphics nature of education requires a lot of bandwidth capacity for students requiring courses or resources through the Internet. With limited bandwidth capacity, that access to upload or download information can be slow or delayed. It can be frustrating to a student or an educator who uses those tools to supplement what they are doing in a classroom environment.
The bigger use I see is that of possibly helping our smaller communities where we might not be able to hire teachers who have a specialist background. However, in using the Internet, that teacher might be able to access someone with that specialty in another region or even another part of the country.
Senator Nancy Ruth: What can be done to give you enough access for downloading?
Mr. Daniels: It requires some investment in improving the overall Internet infrastructure.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Are you talking about the satellite end of it?
Mr. Daniels: That is part of it. Another part of it is ensuring that we have more access to the pipe running the Internet. We have some access now, but it is limited. Finding ways to increase that accessibility is of primary interest to us.
Senator Campbell: I find this Internet issue fascinating. I have spent a lot of time in the Northwest Territories — Resolute Bay, Igloolik and the Arctic. They have Internet in Alert Bay, which is the end of the earth and then a little bit beyond that. If we have Internet in Alert Bay, why could we not we have the same for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon? I do not understand what the difficulty is. It would seem that we already have the physical capacity. As you describe it, it is like a pipeline. All that you want to do is to have a tap that goes to the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Daniels: The challenge is cost. Certainly a number of communities have Internet access in the NWT. Others have less reliable access because the routing of the traffic through a pipe is a challenge. We have one pipe for our Internet traffic with the Government of the Northwest Territories. We access that pipe on a shared basis between our education system, health system and all the other government departments. Therefore, the schools are trying to access that pipe. It is a matter of ensuring that we have enough resources to expand that pipe or finding ways of speeding up the access. For those communities that do not have the high-speed Internet infrastructure in place, it is a challenge.
Senator Campbell: One of the issues we have is, of course, the sovereignty of the North. It is a big issue for all Canadians. If that is in fact true, then your population is way more important to us, not by virtue of size, but by virtue of geography. It would seem that getting that pipe to not only the Northwest Territories but also Nunavut and the Yukon would be cost-effective at the end of the day. Would you agree with that?
Mr. Daniels: In the long run, it would be a very effective approach for improving accessibility to services such as education, key government services or other services for the private sector.
Senator Campbell: Could you give me an estimate? You say that the major issues have to do with attendance. How big of an effect would having proper Internet access for students be on the overall number?
Mr. Daniels: It would become more important as students move into the higher grades, not so much at the elementary or primary grades. However, the big gain would be for the more advanced courses where it is difficult to hire the teachers with the right teaching specialization.
The Deputy Chair: Mr. Daniels, on behalf of all members of the committee, I thank you for presenting some insights and information about what is happening in the Northwest Territories. You have provided us with valuable information on some of the challenges and solutions. We thank you for that.
(The committee adjourned.)