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John Abbott College and the Kativik School Board are collaborating on a post-secondary program for students from Nunavik that will teach general education courses from an Inuit perspective.

The program is made possible thanks to a $667,000 grant from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada’s Post-Secondary Partnerships Program.

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The one-year, general-education program, called Nunavik Sivunitsavut, will launch at the beginning of the 2017 academic year with between 10 and 15 students.

James Vanderberg is an education consultant with the Kativik School Board and is heavily involved in the development of Nunavik Sivunitsavut. He spent five years teaching in the North and understands the challenges young students can face when they travel south to study. Not only are they faced with the academic demands of college courses, they experience the culture shock of life in the city.

Vanderberg said that more than half of the Inuit students who come to Montreal to study drop out before completing their studies. He said offering courses that are culturally-relevant can go a long way to keep a student engaged in the process. Students will learn, for example, the history of Quebec from the Inuit perspective.