Nunavut students head back to class this month

Marvin McKay-Keenan, the new principal of Kugluktuk High School, wants to find ways to keep all the school’s 170-plus students in school, all year. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Kugluktuk High School’s Grizzly teams spark enthusiasm from its students— at least from those who attend school. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

KUGLUKTUK — Students go back to school across Nunavut this month, although in the Kitikmeot region they had a head start on the rest of the territory, starting back to school at the beginning of August.

“We’re off to a great start and first off the block,” said Jonathan Bird, the acting head of Kitikmeot School Operations.

With local district education authorities setting the dates for the school year, schools in Kugluktuk opened Aug. 3, with the end of the school year set for May 27.

Cambridge Bay’s schools are the last in the Kitikmeot to get underway, starting this week.

All teaching positions are fully staffed, Bird said, with schools in Kugaaruk, Gjoa Haven and Kugluktuk under new principals.

Marvin McKay-Keenan is settling in as principal at Kugluktuk High School, where he replaces Gary Kennedy, now on educational leave.

McKay-Keenan’s goal during his one-year replacement is to find ways to keep students interested in coming to school.

Kugluktuk is known for producing quality graduates, he said, but largely because “everyone else drops out.”

Students like the school and are keen supporters of its Grizzly sports teams, which encourage good teamwork and attendance, he said.

But many kids lose interest in school after the first few weeks of the school year, stop coming to school and hang out at home and around town.

“We have to open the doors,” said McKay-Keenan.

Kids who are often absent, who may have heard school isn’t a cool place to be, and students with learning problems need to stay in school— no matter what their level is.

“They need to see hope for the future and that having good skills is a step in the right direction.”

To that end he’d like to see trades courses open up to students who may lack the academic skills to become a journeyman tradesperson but may still be able to work in construction.

And he’d like to see high school teachers stop expecting all students enrolled in a grade to work at a same level and try to adapt to the variations in abilities— much as teachers do in elementary school.

In McKay-Keenan’s ideal school, teachers would also be more hands-on with their homeroom classes, so they would see their students most of the day, teaching them more subjects, and monitoring their attendance and progress.

He’d like to see teachers work with different learning styles and needs, acknowledging that it’s one thing to hope teachers can develop individual learning plans for their students and another thing for them to actually be able to do it.

While Kugluktuk High School is new to McKay-Keenan, the North is not.

McKay-Keenan, who arrived in the North in 1981, has been a teacher and administrator in many Nunavut communities, including Kimmirut, Whale Cove, Repulse Bay, and Arviat where he spent 20 years.

Now McKay-Keenan is again in the unfamiliar situation of not knowing all the students’ names.

And there’s another major difference between Arviat and Kugluktuk, he said.

Used to hearing Inuktitut everywhere in Arviat, McKay-Keenan said he doesn’t hear Inuinnaqtun in his new school.

“From a personal standpoint, I find that sad,” he said.

As an administrator he’s also frustrated because no Inuinnaqtun teacher has been found for the 179 students now enrolled in the school.

Because no qualified teacher has applied to teach, if an Inuinnaqtun speaker does apply for the position, he or she will need a letter of authority and backup to teach, he said.

However, knowing a language doesn’t necessarily mean you can teach it, McKay-Keenan said, noting students benefit when teachers have teaching and classroom organization skills as well as experience with curriculum materials.