First Inuktitut Class in the Province of Ontario at OCDSB

February 6, 2025

On Monday, February 3rd, 2025, our Education team attended a very nice celebration of the Inauguration of the first Inuktitut class in the province of Ontario at the Ottawa Carleton District School Board!

Tungasuvvingat Inuit (TI) has played a role for the past 10 years in being an active member of the Uqausilijiit Circle which has helped enable the certification of Inuk teacher, Nina Kuppaq, with the Ontario College of Teachers, who is now one of the teachers of this course. We are incredibly proud of the Nina and the team’s accomplishments.

Additionally, we established an evaluation rubric with the help of elder Meeka Kakudluk and TI staff member, Leena Arreak, for the assessment of prior Inuktitut language speakers in order to obtain a “PLAR “ credit. To date, three students have received this credit.

TI continues to make presentations to the OCT and Ministry of Education on the Elder Endorsement model so that more Inuktitut language speakers may be qualified to teach. The school board’s own Indigenous team, led by the Indigenous Language coordinator, has established this grade 9 credit course at Ottawa Technical Secondary School ( OTSS).

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