In Nunavik, Inuit territory north of 55e parallel to Quebec, students learn in a context different from that which prevails further south. While there are big challenges in schools — and in communities — there are also small miracles every day. The duty offers you a series of reports on this unique education system. Today: the concept of compassionate schools.
“Families face a very high rate of food insecurity and poverty, which means that many children do not have their own bed, let alone their own room, and go to bed on their stomachs. empty. Basic needs are not being met and yet these children are expected to do well in school. »
These striking words are those of Inuit who spoke in 2013 on the state of education in Nunavik.
More recently, researchers hired by the Kativik School Board reported the experience of teachers showing that uneducated parents are ill-equipped to support their children’s learning. “The homework is not done because they don’t know how to do it, there are no pencils at home, there is no place to do the work. »
Another teacher revealed that in some classes the majority of his students had made more than one suicide attempt and that it was usually him who found them. Some students showed up to class drunk and sometimes exploded for no apparent reason, but they persevered, through thick and thin, and graduated from high school.
If social problems go far beyond the fields of competence of schools, they try as best they can to reduce their impact to allow children to have their minds available for learning when they are in class.
“We do what we can to support young people at school and allow them to achieve academic success,” said Liza Cotnoir, coordinator of complementary and compassionate services at the school board, in an interview by videoconference.
We try to intervene in such a way as to teach students skills [sociales] rather than constantly punishing or suspending them
For example, schools have set up a breakfast club to allow students to eat healthy foods in the morning. “Seeing a hungry child sickens me,” says teacher Marie-Louise Nkwaya, who regularly prepares meals with her students at dinnertime.
In Nunavik, the pregnancy rate among teenage girls aged 14 to 17 is four times higher than in the rest of Quebec. To enable young girls to continue their studies, the Salluit school has a nursery. In other communities, such as Kangirsuk, awareness campaigns on contraception are bearing fruit. “We have almost no more teenage pregnancies,” says Minnie Annahatak, who works for the Kativik School Board in Kangirsuk.
Emotional support
In recent years, more and more resources have been deployed by the school board’s complementary and compassionate services department. In 2015-2016, in response to a wave of suicides that shook the region, a pilot project was set up by creating six student support professional positions. Today, they are three times more numerous and are part of the school landscape.
“I went to replace the student support professional in a school for a day,” says coordinator Liza Cotnoir. That day, 74 young people passed by his office, not all to get help, but to say hello. “It is the relationship of trust that is established. They come to take the temperature of the water and, when they are going to have a hard time, they will know that the office door is always open. »
Despite the needs, several positions for student support professionals, psychologists and psychoeducators are vacant in the schools of the Kativik School Board, due in particular to the labor shortage.
“We are not 100% everywhere, but things are getting better and better in our department. There is a collaboration and a vision that allow us to put our energy into promoting student success,” explains Liza Cotnoir.
Compassionate schools
The schools also adhere to the concept of the compassionate approach, a model developed in the United States and adapted to Nunavik. It aims to better welcome students who are experiencing trauma by recognizing that they are not always available for learning.
“There are certain difficulties in the schools on the behavioral level, summarizes Catherine Hallé, the head of the department. We try to intervene in such a way as to teach students skills [sociales] rather than constantly punishing or suspending them. »
Training is offered to teachers and school staff to teach them how to decode a message behind certain reprehensible behaviors and give them tools to better respond to them. “We inform them about the importance of trying to understand why students have these behaviors and what they can do to change it. »
With this philosophy in mind, each school and each teacher is free to adapt their approach according to their needs. And results vary from place to place, depending on staff involvement. Catherine Hallé has no statistics, but she assures us that “it has a super positive impact” on the climate in schools. She also notes a drop in violence, reprehensible behavior and suspensions at school, but also believes that this goes well beyond the school environment. “It radiates throughout the community,” she concludes.
This report was produced in part with the financial support of the Kativik School Board.