Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any early childhood programming that's offered to our children, we have in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services. We've developed Right from the Start, a strategy, an action plan. Any early childhood programming is going to benefit the children, going to benefit the families, and is going to benefit the communities for the children. Any children that go through an early childhood program are going to see results, whether it's through junior kindergarten, through a day home, or a day program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The NWT JK curriculum for four- and five-year-old children is play-based and supports children's cognitive, social, emotional, creative, and physical development, as well as cultural. As I mentioned, the EDI results that we've been seeing with the programs that already run in the Northwest Territories, we're seeing a big improvement in the communities that are offering junior kindergarten that are entering into the kindergarten system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, we are going to have the new strategic plan for the Aurora College. That's going to redefine how Aurora College runs its programs to provide the program services that our Northerners want to get into, and also for the indemand jobs.

As I mentioned, this program in particular had low admission and low graduation rates. As I mentioned, again, the Aurora College, they have the autonomy to make the decisions that they want to do in terms of developing their whole strategic planning, and we support the decisions that the Aurora College makes. Thank you...

As I mentioned, the Aurora College does have that autonomy to make the decisions they need. We did give them direction with the mandate on the priorities that our government came up with at the beginning of the 18th Legislative Assembly. We looked at that labour market information demand. We are going through a strategy right now, and that strategy should be available in June. We are working with the board of governors, we are working with the president to make those changes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently in the news yesterday and the information I was given the students, as well as instructors for the Social Work Program, historically we’ve had low admission as well as low graduation rates within that program, although I will say that there have been some successes for the people that did graduate. Aurora College does have the autonomy to make these decisions in where they're looking at moving forward with the programs that they provide. We support those decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just following up into answering another similar question earlier, that the department is working with the education authorities to address things such as busing, such as school safety and making sure that the implementation of junior kindergarten in all our communities is a smooth transition. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the Member's riding, junior kindergarten has been rolled out over a number of years. We haven't really heard any concerns from them. We're actually hearing really good positive feedback of how junior kindergarten has been implemented in Nahendeh. The department is working with education authorities, as I had mentioned yesterday, to examine the requirements such as busing, such as safety. Of course, safety is the forefront and priority within our education authorities, as well as at the department. So when we speak with our staff and our education authorities and our superintendents, of...

With the consultation that we've had with residents of the Northwest Territories as well as our school boards, we have made those changes to ensure that early childhood educators can be part of instructors within the JK system and doesn't necessarily have to have a degree. It's the flexibility of the school boards to determine whether the JK instructors can be an early childhood educator or have to have that degree in education.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the report that we tabled last year, of course, we go out and we speak with all our stakeholders. As Minister responsible for Education, it is my duty to ensure that all families, all children, have access to the same quality of education and the best start at life when they start their education careers. Currently there are 11 communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have any licenced early childhood programs. As a government, we have to make sure that we provide services that give every family, every child, the equal opportunity to have the best start...

As I mentioned, we fund education authorities on enrolments. We've seen low enrolments. The funding that we usually give on the previous year's budget, they've been lower, so that funding that we usually get, we're using that, and reprofiling it in junior kindergarten. It's because of low enrolment rates.