In Nunavik, the children went back to school last Monday, but they are accumulating an unprecedented delay due to the closure of the last few months. In some villages hard hit by the Omicron wave, schoolchildren have only had about thirty school days since the start of the school year. And without a proper internet connection, with students glued to each other in crowded homes, homeschooling is far from a success.
” It’s enormous [la perte des apprentissages], exclaims the Director General of the Kativik School Board, Harriet Keleutak. We make remedial plans, especially with 3rd gradersand4and and 5and secondary, so that they can take their end-of-year ministerial exams, but it is not easy. We are also making a plan to have summer courses. »
Mme Keleutak has no illusions. Many children will repeat their school year. “In communities that have been closed for a long time, there will be children who will not be able to finish the year and who will have to repeat their learning next year. »
According to her, barely 60% of students have been able to do their work remotely in the past few months. “There are parents who do not speak or read French. Even in Inuktitut, not all parents are able to teach their children. It’s a huge challenge. »
There are also overcrowded houses, families living with seven in a two-bedroom house or fourteen in a three-bedroom house. “It’s one of the biggest problems we have,” sighs Mme Keleutak. It is very difficult for students who live with their parents, their grandparents and their great-grandparents, their brothers and sisters or their cousins-cousins to do their work. Not to mention that their parents are also teleworking. »
Bad connection
But the main obstacle to distance education remains the poor quality of the Internet network, notes Mr.me Keleutak. “It’s very, very slow. In Zoom, it’s impossible to turn on the camera, otherwise you lose the connection. With those who are teleworking, we hold our meetings by telephone rather than by Zoom. »
Under these conditions, it is therefore impossible for students to follow a virtual course or download homework to do. The teachers printed the work and delivered the material to the home. Older students were given laptops into which the material had been uploaded beforehand. The teachers then exchanged with their students by phone, email or on Facebook. Some even used the local radio.
The schools of Kangirsuk, Salluit and Kuujjuaq, which alone host a third of the school board’s 3,300 students, closed their doors in mid-October to prevent the spread of the virus, because the health system was saturated. Remember that in northern communities, it is the CLSCs that provide care. Those who require more serious care must be evacuated by plane.
The school in Ivujivik also closed in mid-October, but gradually reopened in November, while those in Tasiujaq, Aupaluk and Akulivik closed in November. The Tasiujaq school is still closed due to decontamination work.
After the Christmas break, 18 schools in Nunavik remained closed. They only opened on January 31.
Public Health had given permission to open schools on January 19, but teachers who come from the South – around 50% of the workforce according to the director general of the school board – had to be able to receive their third dose of vaccine. , that they do rapid tests before flying and that they do their quarantine once they arrive in the villages.
The school board has therefore decided to extend the forced leave. According to Mme Keleutak, all schools are now open. “But some parents are scared because there are still COVID cases in almost every village and there are a few of them keeping the children at home. »
Shortage of staff
Added to all this is a staff shortage that is getting worse every year. “When there are not enough teachers, we combine classes. When this is not possible, we close classes altogether, explains Harriet Keleutak. We do everything we can so that children can have the credits and the basics they need. »
Quebec offers them help, but it is not always adapted to the reality of northern villages. “The government talks to us about substitution. But for us, substitution does not exist. Our communities are isolated: the only way to travel from one community to another is by plane! And when the government tells us to bring people back to retirement, we can’t find them either! »
One of the solutions would be to have more teachers who come from the communities themselves, says Ms.me Keleutak. Currently, these are generally confined to the levels of kindergarten to third grade, which are given in Inuktitut. But for the other levels, the school board mainly calls on outside personnel. And that’s the rub.
“If we could have more, it would help us a lot,” said Ms.me Keleutak. She also believes that if the working conditions granted to the Inuit who work in the schools were equal to those of non-Natives, the candidates would be more numerous. “We have been fighting for this for 40 years. The government says that we are all equal, but that does not exist here. »