April 11, 2008
No teacher means no school for Quaqtaq kids
“People aren’t lining up to come and teach here,”
QUAQTAQ - It's been more than a month since Lizzie Ningiuruvik's 13-year old daughter Martha has been able to go to school.
That's because the teacher of her Grade 5, 6 and 7 French-language class became pregnant and had to miss work because of medical complications.
And there was no local supply teacher qualified to take over the job.
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This past week, a replacement teacher was due to arrive in Quaqtaq, but students in Martha's mixed-grade class have already missed more than 20 days of school this year, not counting spring break.
Ningiuruvik is angry and frustrated about the collapse of her daughter's school year.
"My daughter wants to be a doctor," Ningiuruvik said. "How is she going to be a doctor if she doesn't go to school?"
During the long weeks without school, Martha slept in late. Then, she played on the computer or hung out with friends.
Now, to make up the lost class-time, she'll spend longer days in school.
Ningiuruvik, who was out of town for a course, didn't realize that no teacher had taken over Martha's class until she returned home. She immediately made complaints to the school.
"We're told education is good. We want to have it, but then they [the students] can't go to school," Ningiuruvik said.
Ningiuruvik and her daughter weren't the only ones affected by lack of a teacher for the Grade 5, 6 and 7 class.
George Okpik, a Quaqtaq resident, decided to send his two children to Kuujjuaq to live with their mother after they missed two weeks of school. They'll stay there until the end of the school year.
Margot Simonot, the principal of Isummasaqvik School, said she couldn't find a supply teacher locally to fill in for the absent teacher.
And Simonot said her hands were tied because she couldn't put out feelers for a longer-term replacement until it was certain that the regular teacher would not return.
Last week, Simonot was finally able to scout around for a teacher to take over the class. She located a teacher in another region of Quebec, who was willing to teach in Quaqtaq until the end of the school year. He was due to arrive in the community this past week.
Finding that short-term teacher wasn't easy.
"People aren't lining up to come and teach here," Simonot said.
Due to the housing shortage in Quaqtaq, the replacement teacher will share a house with someone he doesn't know - not every teacher's idea of a viable living arrangement.
Meanwhile, school principals from around Nunavik gathered in Montreal this week to interview prospective teachers for the next school year.
Simonot will be looking for five or six new teachers for Isummasaqvik School, which employs 15 teachers for 115 students.
Patrick d'Astous, the president of the Nunavik Teaching Association, said the Kativik School Board will discover that filling permanent and temporary positions will become even more challenging in the future unless Nunavik teachers receive better working conditions and more pay.
"We said during the negotiations that if you don't offer something really attractive for teachers in the North, the coming years will be even tougher," D'Astous said. "That's the way it is. And the students pay the price."
