Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with the Minister of Education and ask a few more questions with regards to the funding for junior kindergarten and the written response, or the response to the written question.
I asked the Minister when the boards, the board chairs, the superintendents had been advised of the reductions in their funding for the ‘14-15 year. I don’t believe I heard an answer.
I would like to ask again, to the Minister, I appreciate that the boards and the chairs and the superintendents have been involved all along, but when were they advised of the reduction in their funding allotments for ‘14-15? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the specific detail of date that we met with the board chairs. I met with the board chairs to introduce the Early Childhood Development Framework and along with that was introducing junior kindergarten, but I can provide the Member with the exact dates of when that occurred, along with other engagements that we have initiated with the board chairs, the superintendents. Later on today I will be tabling the document of engagement. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. I’m not so worried about the engagement. I know that the superintendents and the board chairs and the boards have been involved all along and that they have known about this initiative. My question is: When were they advised that their funding was going to be reduced for the ‘14-15 budget year? If the Minister doesn’t have that information, that’s fine, I can appreciate that, but it’s my understanding that it wasn’t very long ago; that they were not advised of the funding at the time the project was put forward.
The Minister mentioned that the superintendents had suggested that the pupil-teacher ratio be reduced and implemented through kindergarten to Grade 12. I wonder if he could explain to me what that means; I don’t quite understand. I had understood that it was the high school PTR that was being changed. Are we changing the PTR for all grades? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, when we first introduced that the PTR be adjusted, the formula, to the superintendents, it came out with various numbers for the school boards during the three-year phases. The school boards, the superintendents did come back and recommended that we seriously consider having a PTR discussion pertaining to kindergarten through Grade 12, so those are the discussions that we’ve had with them, taking those into consideration, to make some make some modifications to the actual numbers from the original intent to what we have with the numbers now. So I made some changes over time. So, based on their recommendations, we went forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. So I need to ask the Minister now then, what will be the pupil-teacher ratio for grades 10 to 12, what will be the PTR for elementary, what will be the PTR for primary in the budget year ‘14-15 coming up? Thank you.
I did highlight the actual numbers of the pupil-teacher ratio for year one, year two and year three. The PTR is still above the legislated mandate, so we are working towards that. We just have to be mindful that we are beyond the legislated mandate. I can also provide to the Members the breakdown with the actual numbers of the phase-in approach for year one, year two, year three, starting this fall. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard the Minister say we have those numbers. All I have in the written response is the current ratio is 13 to 1 and the legislated ratio is 16 to 1. I would like to know what we are moving to, and if that’s what the Minister said that he will get for us, then I very much look forward to that information, if he could confirm, please. Thank you.
Those are the discussions we’ve had with the superintendents. They were very mindful of our legislative mandate, the 13 versus the 16. So, I can provide Members with actual numbers that we have currently. Dealing with this $7 million over a three-year period, working with the school boards, how is that going to reflect on PTR, I can provide those actual numbers to the Members. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The time for question period has expired.
Before we go on, colleagues, I would like to welcome back into the House today Mr. Ernie Bernhardt; his wife, Beatrice; his daughter Donna Bernhardt, my executive assistant; and his son O.J. Welcome back to the House.
---Applause
