Mr. Speaker, today I talked about the South Slave District Education Council, which had concerns over recent discussions of potential cutbacks and the need to reaffirm this government’s support. Will the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment honour the commitment to increase funding for special-needs support, trades and physical education instruction by reducing the PTR from 15:1 to 14:1 in the South Slave regional school?
Mahsi. Mr. Speaker, the G.N.W.T. is in the process of making a decision with respect to supporting the 16th Assembly’s priorities and planning and the proposed budget that will be brought forward here in the spring.
Supporting the education of our youth is our top priority, Mr. Speaker. We do have a decision that is coming down on us that will involve the Members as well. We will be making a decision in terms of how we invest in our youth and also the schools at the community level. That will be one of our priorities that we continue to support. Mahsi.
I thank the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to improving funding for small outlying communities so that these communities will have adequate opportunity to provide basic quality high school programming for properly preparing students for both functional grade level and Alberta achievement tests?
Mr. Speaker, one of the goals and priorities of our department is to support the programs that we have with the schools and with the community. Yes, we will continue to support those areas.
Reiterating that, one of the priorities of the government is to look after the youth — the children of our communities — so we will take those into consideration as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, there is potential for saving the result of the G.N.W.T. reduction in spending that could allow for re-profiling of important educational priorities such as literacy and numeracy.
Can the Minister confirm that there will be no G.N.W.T. funding cuts to South Slave schools?
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s commitment in this particular area, as it is a high interest in the communities. We have already received correspondence from the communities saying that education should not be cut from the budget.
Those are decisions that still need to be made, and we will certainly take those into consideration — the concerns and the issues that were highlighted here. It is one of the priority areas for this 16th Assembly government, so we will continue to push that forward as a priority item. Mahsi.
Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
A challenge for many smaller communities is teacher retention. Teacher turnover is high in small outlying communities, resulting in interrupted improvement efforts. Within the schools, the Decha school has frequently had no choice but to limit the recruitment efforts to teaching couples only due to a lack of housing.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to visiting my communities along with the superintendent of the South Slave district council to meet with me and the community to address the community’s ability to recruit and retain staff?
Mr. Speaker, certainly I am more than willing to visit the communities in the Member’s riding. We did make some arrangements to go to the communities sometime after session. I am committed to that.
The issue that he has highlighted — the recruitment process — is another area that we are focussing on as a department, working along with the NWT Housing Corporation, whether it be housing issues or the recruitment area. We are fully aware of it. In our department, one of our goals is to develop plans to deal with it. Mahsi.
