Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you’ve already heard, today is the beginning of Education Week so I’m going to tell an education story. For two years in a row now I’ve been privileged to be a judge at the Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair. Two Fridays ago I was at Mildred Hall School hard at work doing just that. The Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair was a gathering of students ranging from grade 4 to grade 8. Each of the students at the regional fair was a winner in their own right from the learning fair competition held at their own school, and now they were competing for the regional title in either science or heritage.
It was an invigorating, exciting and fun day for me. I was thoroughly impressed by all the projects and especially those I was privileged to judge. The students represented all of Yellowknife Education District No. 1 K to 8 schools and Weledeh School from the Yellowknife Catholic Schools district. The kids were excited, they were nervous, they were proud. Their enthusiasm for the project that they had produced was evident and it was infectious. We have extremely smart kids in our schools, Mr. Speaker. They are articulate and knowledgeable, and pleasant and courteous to boot.
The Yellowknife Regional Historical Fair winners competed again this past week in the first ever Pan-Territorial Historical Fair. That competition had 30 students from across the NWT and, for the first time, 10 students from each of the Yukon and Nunavut presenting their projects for judging.
I want to congratulate everyone involved in all the learning fairs, and there’s many to mention. Organizing and producing a fair at any level is a big project and it takes a lot of work. My thanks and congratulations go to the teachers at each student’s school, they’re the ones who get the kids started; to each school’s learning fair organizing team, they make sure that each school has their own competition. Thanks also to the school which hosted the regional competition, in this case Mildred Hall School, which put up with the disruption of students, parents and judges coming and going all day long, and to the team of educators who organized the territorial competition. It was held at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre and they put on a great show. Last, but not least, thanks to the parents of the participants for the assistance and guidance they provided to the students as the project progressed from an idea to a finished product.
Mr. Speaker, did I forget the students? I did. Congratulations must go to each and every student who participated in a learning fair, no matter what level it was. You all did a marvellous job.
Mr. Speaker, to everyone involved in education in the NWT, I want to quote the NWT Teachers’ Association slogan, “Thank you for making a difference.”
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
