The Inuit population in Nunavut performs at a significantly lower level of literacy proficiency than the other Aboriginal populations surveyed. The average prose literacy score for Inuit in Nunavut was 207 – 54 points less than Aboriginal people living in the Yukon Territory and 34 points less than Aboriginal people living in the Northwest Territories. The literacy gap between the Inuit population in Nunavut and the Aboriginal population living in the Yukon is equivalent to one proficiency level. Readers are reminded that a high proportion of the Inuit population in Nunavut function on a daily basis in an Aboriginal language. The literacy proficiencies that are being measured in this survey are only in French or English.
Significant differences in performance are also evident in the other three domains – document literacy, numeracy and problem solving (See Annex A Table 3.5 B to D).
Figures 3.6 and 3.7 show the relationship between age and prose literacy scores for the Aboriginal populations in the regions studied (See Annex A Tables 3.6 B to D and Tables 3.7 B to D for similar results for the document, numeracy and problem solving domains).
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the average prose literacy scores for all age groups of the urban Aboriginal populations are lower than those for the non- Aboriginal populations. Across all ages, average prose literacy scores for urban Aboriginal people correspond to Level 2 proficiency. By comparison, with the exception of the 46 and over age group, the average scores for the non-Aboriginal population correspond to Level 3.
Literacy proficiency among Aboriginal people living in the territories is quite varied. The differences in average prose literacy scores between Inuit and non-Inuit groups in Nunavut are particularly large. The average scores for Inuit across all age groups in Nunavut correspond to Level 1 proficiency whereas the non-Inuit groups have an average score at Level 3.
In the Yukon, the average scores for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal 16 to 25 year-olds correspond to Level 3 proficiency. For all other age groups in Yukon, and across all age groups in the Northwest Territories, average prose literacy scores are much lower for the Aboriginal populations. As was seen in Chapter 2, the average prose literacy score tends to be lower for older age groups than for younger in Canada. Interestingly this age pattern does not appear to hold for non-Aboriginal people living in the territories due to the relatively high average literacy performance of the 46 and over age group.
As a result, in each of the territories, average prose literacy performance is notably higher for non- Aboriginal people aged 46 and over than for Aboriginal people. This having been said, among this oldest age group, average prose literacy for the Aboriginal population living in the Yukon corresponds to Level 2 proficiency whereas performance is at Level 1 for the Aboriginal and Inuit populations living in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.