Mr. Speaker, with this being Education Week, I, along with several of my colleagues, would like to acknowledge the educators of our Territory. In particular, I would like to recognize those who invest their skills and energy to educate the students of Hay River.
These weeks set aside to recognize specific professions are a good idea. However, if we are to truly respect and recognize our teachers, we could most sincerely do that by ensuring that our schools and their staff are adequately resourced to make the most positive impact possible in the education tasks of our children.
To that end, I would like to draw particular attention to the issue of inclusive schooling. The intent of inclusive schooling is a noble notion. It is premised on the model that children of all learning capacities should be educated in the same classroom.
However, when children with very special needs are integrated into the classroom without the necessary support of special needs and classroom assistants, the consequences do not serve anyone’s interest, let alone the child with the special needs. Far too often this dynamic of being under-resourced places untenable stress on the teacher, denies children who may be gifted, as well as the mainstream learners and, most importantly, is a disservice to the students with special needs.
It’s easy as a government to pay lip service to our educators during Education Week. But let’s give them the real support they need every day in their classrooms to educate our children. We should be looking at strengthening our commitment of resources to education. And it should most definitely be off limits for any reduction considerations as we proceed with that debate in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
