This class of graduates began the program four years ago. (Submitted photo/Mark Klein)

By Derek Cornet

Cohort Complete

Dene Teacher Education Program graduates can speak, read and write the language

May 22, 2020 | 2:03 PM

It’s been a long four years for those accepted into the Dene Teacher Education Program (DTEP) back in 2016, but now more than half of graduates have accepted positions for the upcoming academic year.

That’s according to Clearwater River School Principal Mark Klein who assisted as a local coordinator for the program. He said 32 students from La Loche were initially enrolled into the program and 21 recently graduated with Bachelor of Education degrees.

“This graduating class are all fluent in the Dene language,” Klein said. “All students can all speak, read, and write the language. This makes them unique as they are probably the most fluent graduating class of an Indigenous language anywhere in the country [and] perhaps the world.”

Klein mentioned DTEP began in the summer of 2016 shortly after the traumatic shooting at Dene High School that left four people dead and several others injured. The program was formed out of a partnership between Clearwater River Dene Nation, Northern Lights School Division, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, First Nations University of Canada, University of Regina, as well as the provincial and federal governments.

Students attended classes on the Clearwater River Dene Nation throughout the four years and their internship placements were held at Clearwater River School or La Loche Community School. Klein noted local leadership wanted the program to take place in their traditional Denesuline territory and to shift the model of post-secondary education program delivery.

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“It is much easier for one instructor to come to the community for three weeks than it is for 21 students to uproot their families and move to the city,” he said.

Farris Lemaigre is one of the graduates of DTEP and she said it was an empowering experience as she was able to learn so much about her Dene culture and traditions. When she first began the program she wasn’t fluent in Dene, but said since then her family and friends have noticed how much her comprehension of the Dene language has improved.

Students in DTEP, however, were in the midst of a three-week internship in March when they found out classes would be cancelled due to the pandemic.

“We had to do three weeks of 100 per cent teaching and then it just came to halt,” Lemaigre said, adding it was up to the co-op teachers to determine if they passed or failed with what teachings they had already completed.

While there doesn’t seemed to be plans for a second intake for DTEP, Lemaigre believes there should be as there are many positives that came from it. For instance, she said the vast majority of graduates will stay in the area and teach local children. In the past several years, there’s been a teacher shortage in northern Saskatchewan and Lemaigre herself recently accepted a position at Clearwater River School as a math teacher.

The end of the program has been bittersweet with the fact students haven’t been able to host a convocation ceremony. Graduates began organizing it back in 2017 and it was originally scheduled to be held Saturday, but was cancelled because of the coronavirus.

“When all of this is over, we’re still trying to have a local ceremony, but it just depends on when we can have mass gatherings again,” she said.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno