Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, sir.
Yes, we did mention the lack of a proper education system in Nunavut over the years. Some of you stated you had read the Berger report. We did work among ourselves a few years ago to find out what was wrong with the system. We looked at the education system overall, and when we reviewed it and the consultants came back, we learned that Nunavut was experiencing a 75% dropout rate. That was seven or eight years ago, but it's improved now.
We looked at that and asked, is that number accurate? Yes, it was. We were experiencing a 75% dropout rate. So out of every 100 students, 75 of them were dropping out, and that was not proper. It was unfair. We were being unfair, and it was not fair to the students who were in that educational cycle. So that told us as parents and teachers that we needed to help and that the government system needed to improve aspects of that. As I said before, there needs to be an overhaul of the educational system in Nunavut. I think that's pretty much being undertaken right now, and we want to make sure that bilingual education is at the forefront of everything the educational system does provide in Nunavut. That's being undertaken right now.
We've been blamed many times for not having capacity in Nunavut. As a result, we have to revamp things, because it's reflective of the education system not being proper. We wanted to come back and say that we were trying to fix our own mechanics, I suppose, to make sure we were offering the best education possible in Nunavut.
I know today it's still not the best, because we continue to have to re-educate the students who need to go to higher education, to university and colleges. When they arrive from Nunavut to get a better education in the south, they're required to upgrade their standards, because there's something not quite right. Every one of those students has to go through an upgrade program, meaning they need to upgrade their grades. Again, that tells you there is something wrong with the system.
We continue to do the best we can to resolve that. We try to deal with the capacity issue the best way we can and try to make sure the education component is the best possible, so we can fill those loopholes. That's why you see the $137 million a year that we fail to get because of lack of capacity, because of of our lack of hiring, because the government we work with imports a lot of workers in place of locals who could be working.
Those are the kinds of issues before us that we're working on. Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot avoid those things. On our side, we're trying to help resolve those situations.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, Udloriak wants to add something.