Greenland offers a roadmap for how to get Inuktut taught in Nunavut's schools - Action News
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Greenland offers a roadmap for how to get Inuktut taught in Nunavut's schools

"Because we see ... our neighbours being able to achieve that, we have the sense that also Inuit in Nunavut should and could be able to achieve that," said Aluki Kotierk, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Protests by students in the 1970s pushed for Greenlandic to be adopted into the education system again

Peter Olsen, Greenland's minister of education, culture, sports and church, says local languages are strongly present in primary schools. The country is still working to bolster Greenlandic in high schools and university. (Matisse Harvey/Radio-Canada)

When Peter Olsen was in Grade 1, the only language he was allowed to learn in was Danish.

Now the minister of education in Greenland, Olsen said his countryhas made strides toward entrenching the Greenlandic languages in the education system and it's particularly strong in primary schools but there's still more to do, especially when it comes to teaching Greenlandic in high school and beyond.

"Many get their education in Greenlandic, but we also have some problems as to how many children and youth are getting through their eduction and then [going] to the next education level," Olsen explained.

Greenland is an example Nunavut can look to, say some Inuit, for inspiration on how to teach Inuktut which encompasses all dialects including Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun in schools.Greenlandic and Inuktut both fall under the sameumbrellaof Inuit languages, but eachhave different dialects.

"Because we see ... our neighbours being able to achieve that, we have the sense that also Inuit in Nunavut should and could be able to achieve that," said Aluki Kotierk, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI). NTI isthe legal organization thatrepresentsInuit in Nunavut,ensuringthe federal and territorial governments fulfil their obligations set out in the Nunavut Agreement.

NTIfiled a statement of claim last October against the Government of Nunavut arguing the government discriminates against Inuit students by not offering enough education in Inuktut. That claim followed the government's controversial decision to pass Bill 25, which removed a requirement for schools to provideInuktut education to all grades by 2019-2020 and instead only required an Inuit language course to be implemented as early as 2026 for Grade 4 and as late as2039 for Grade 12.

A woman stands inside, looking out a window.
Aluki Kotierk, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., looks out her office window at the Legislative Assembly. Kotierk says efforts to get Inuktut languages taught in Nunavut's schools could benefit from a Greenlandic approach. (Matisse Harvey/Radio-Canada)

Kotierk pointed to research NTIcommissioned in 2019 that showed Inuit students reverting to speaking English in most schools and learning curriculum that wasn't necessarily based in Nunavut.

"It's a subtractive type of education, while inKalaallit Nunaat[Greenland], it's an additive kind of education where you're not stripping away a student's identity and their self-worth as to how they belong in the world," she said.

"There's a strong foundation of who they are and how they can contribute to the world, and once a person has that strong foundation, they're in a better position to be able to learn other things about the global community. And I think that's what we aspire to here in Nunavut."

A long history of Greenlandic

Greenland's history is the key to understanding why the Greenlandic languages are so strong, Olsen explained.

Up until 1953, the country's students learned in Greenlandic. But that year, Denmark officially changed Greenland's status from a colony to a Danish county, forcing Greenlanders to adopt the Danish language.

It was thanks to protests by students in the 1970s that the country adopted Greenlandic again.

"The youth said, 'No we're Greenlandic. We have to be educated in Greenlandic.' That's when the whole shift started," Olsen said.

"It was an important step for more self-governing."

Odd building, low sun.
The sun shines down on Nakasuk Elementary School in Iqaluit. Students in Nunavut often learn in English instead of their own languages. (Matisse Harvey/Radio-Canada)

Over the last 40 years, Greenland's government has worked to grow the number of Greenlandic-speaking teachers in schools. Olsen said that number has tripled since the 1980s, when roughly 300 teachers spoke the local languages.

Challenges still persistthough Greenlandic is stronger along the coast than in Nuukand because there aren't as many opportunities within Greenland for people to become high school teachers, many teachers come over from Denmark and teach in Danish.

A work in progress

Alliaq Kleist Petrussenused to be a high school teacherin Greenland. She said the ratio of Greenlandic to Danish teachers is overwhelmingly weighted toward the latter: when she was teaching, she was one of four Greenlandic teachers in a school that had 40 instructors.

High school materials and books were in Danishtoo, and translating them was expensive.

Kleist Petrussen said part of the problem is that there aren't enough Greenlandic teachers who have a master's degree a requirement if they want to teach high school.

She said that also affects students coming into high school who are used to learning in Greenlandic.

"I think many students get lower grades ... because they can't sometimes find the words in Danish, so it can be hard to express [themseves]," she said.

Alliaq Kleist Petrussen, a former high school teacher in Greenland, looks through a Danish history book for high school students. Many high school teachers in Greenland are from Denmark, she explained meaning they teach in Danish instead of Greenlandic. (Matisse Harvey/Radio-Canada)

Her mother, Birthe, teaches grades 5 and 6 atHans Lynge School in Nuuk.

Birthe said the presence of Greenlandic in primary schools is very good.In areas outside of Nuuk, like northern Greenland, primary school students speak mostly Greenlandic. In Nuuk, many of her students speak both Greenlandic and Danish, which she said opens up possibilities for them.

"When you only have one language, you are [limiting] yourself," she said.

Olsen pointed to unilingualism as a growing challenge. Greenland's problem is the opposite of Nunavut's, he noted in Nunavut, many people speak English better than their own language, while in Greenland, people now need to strengthen their ability to speak other languages besides Greenlandic.

A book written in Greenlandic. Incorporating the Greenlandic languages in the education system has been particularly successful in primary school. (Matisse Harvey/Radio-Canada)

"We have not that many challenges, because our language is very strong, but there are some aspects that we have to be stronger in," he noted.

Still, Greenland's efforts to bolster local languages in schools could be successful in Nunavut as well, Kotierk said, if there was the political will and support to increase the number of Inuktut speakers teaching in schools.

"I think it demonstrates that Inuktut could be used in all grade levels and all subject matters, so students could graduate with Inuktut as the language of instruction," she said.

"I think we can take inspiration from that."

Corrections

  • An original version of this article said Bill 25 pushed back a requirement to teach Inuktut in schools. In fact, the bill removed that requirement and instead requires an Inuit language course. It also pushed back the implementation date for that course.
    Apr 26, 2022 10:46 AM CT

With interviews from Matisse Harvey