NTI report calls for stronger Inuit focus in education

Concerns about Inuit education raised in Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s latest report will be covered in the territory's proposed new education act, the Nunavut government says.

Education Minister Ed Picco was responding to the Inuit land-claim organization's annual report on Inuit culture and society that was released Wednesday.

With a focus this year on kindergarten-to-Grade 12 education in Nunavut, NTI's report calls on the government to give Inuit communities more say in how the school system should be improved, given that regional education boards were dissolved in 1999.

But Picco said that and other issues are addressed in Bill 21, the proposed new education act that would replace the Education Act carried over from the Northwest Territories.

"I guess the strongest concern was on the education boards, where the NTI is talking about, is there an opportunity to facilitate regional boards again?" Picco told CBC News on Friday.

"I think when you look at the [proposed] new education act that we have in place right now before the standing committee, it talks about giving more local control to our DEAs."

Bill 21 could pass third and final reading during the next session of the Nunavut legislative assembly, which begins Tuesday in Iqaluit.

Picco said about 90 per cent of the response that the government has received on the bill has been positive.

But NTI acting president James Eetoolook said it does not do enough to entrench and empower students in Inuit languages, values and culture.

"I think they need to upgrade their system. And I think that report covers that very well," Eetoolook said. "I think the government has to respond to those and act upon them."