Distant view of Kuglugtuk on the shore of the Arctic Ocean
Photo Credit: Timkal-wiki

Arctic wake up for schoolchildren, and the whole town.

A hamlet in the far north is experimenting with a new policy to combat tardiness in school children.

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Red dot shows Kuglugtuk © google-rci

Known as the town of Coppermine until 1996, Kuglugtuk (the place of moving water) is located in the high Arctic at the mouth of the Coppermine River on the shore of the Arctic Ocean in western Nunavut.

The town of over 1,400 souls has been having a problem with its 100 or so school children arriving late. The situation is not helped by the fact that at this time of year the sun only rises in Kuglugtuk at around noon and dips back below the horizon a couple of hours later.

“Our school starts at 9 o’clock, and we would have a lot of students filter in at 10, 10:30, quarter to 11, it was a tardiness issue on a grand scale,” said Ken Taptuna, counsellor for Kugluktuk High School.

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High school in Kuglugtuk, grades 7-12 shown July 2012 © Timkal-wiki

A high school student suggested using the fire hall siren to help wake kids up. Currently the siren, sounding like a cold-war air raid warning, was used to summon volunteer firefighters and to signal the towns 21;45 curfew for youths under 18.

Adding to 08;30 the wake up siren , are the howlings of all the town’s dogs whenever the siren wails.

The town tried the system for the last week and half before the  Christmas break and are now evaluating the numbers on how effective it was.

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The town’s Catholic Church, March 2004 © Wiki

If shown to have reduced tardiness, the morning siren could become a permanent feature of school mornings in the town.

They’ll still have to deal with issues of weather though. This week temperatures in the town have been around -30C , with strong  winds.  On January 7th, the Nunavut capital Iqaluit recorded peak winds of 135km/h.

(with files from National Post)

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