Communities in the Northwest Territories are feeling the impact of the 2017 suspension of the territory’s only teacher training program, according to a recent article from CBC. Joni Tsatchia—one of the last graduates of the program at Aurora College—told CBC that the program allowed her to train and work in her own community. “I wasn’t too far to travel back [home] during the holidays. And the majority of my instructors were Indigenous,” she said. South Slave Divisional Education Council Superintendent Souhail Soujah shared that a recent survey found that Indigenous staff generally felt that representation among the teaching staff was “severely lacking.” He explained that the return of a teacher education program based in the North would be “extremely helpful” in addressing this. NWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment spokesperson Agata Gutkowska told CBC that the number of self-identified northern Indigenous educators holding valid NWT teaching certificates has increased since 2024, though she noted that this is based on self-identification reports.
