Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had to refrain myself yesterday from getting involved in the inclusive schooling discussions. Today, after listening to news reports this morning, looking at Hansard and following up, in my questions today I just want to get a little bit more specific answers to the inclusive schooling. My first question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Has the Minister and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment received the report from the Department of Executive with recommendations on pupil-teacher ratio and the inclusive schooling and the cost savings for the government? Has he received a review, a report, or some type of communication? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are various reports that my department receives. One of them is PTR inclusive schooling. We continue to review those files. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that he did see the report, possibly. I didn’t really get a concrete answer there, but he did mention PTR and inclusive schooling.
In terms of recommendations, what is his department doing to address those recommendations made from the program review office which is supposed to make our programs and services in the Government of the Northwest Territories more efficient and more effective in spending our dollars? What is the department doing to act on the recommendations from the program review office that he said his office has received? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated in the House yesterday, there is a review of the inclusive schooling. There is a linkage with the early childhood development and it all falls into play. We want to assess inclusive schooling. How is it being delivered? Is it exhausted in all schools to the best of its ability to assist those students? That’s what we’re doing, based on what we’ve heard from the communities, what we’ve heard from the standing committee and other stakeholders out there. That is based on that. We decided we should move forward on re-evaluating our inclusive schooling, so that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I’m glad that the Minister mentioned that he’s reviewing the inclusive schooling again, because that is something that I heard on the radio and I heard it brought up many times yesterday during question period. Was the review process from the Executive not sufficient enough to move forward in the program review office that this department has to do a second review and spend dollars to review this program again when the program review office has already reviewed it and brought recommendations forward? Can he justify why they’re reviewing a program that has already been reviewed from an internal source for the government? It just doesn’t make sense, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, today we are reviewing our inclusive schooling. We want to reach out to the stakeholders. We heard yesterday that we should be talking to those front-line teachers. We should be talking to those students, the teachers, the professionals, the educators. So that’s what we are embarking on. We are doing our own research, as well, across Canada, across the United States and various places. We want to have a product that will be best suited for Northwest Territories, and based on what we’ve heard and what we will hear from the general public across the Northwest Territories. We are pursuing that and we will be delivering that to the standing committee once it is available. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions here. Does the Minister know if the last review from the PRO did not address those or go to the same stakeholders? Whose decision was it to go and review this inclusive schooling again? Who made that decision to review a program that has already been reviewed previously? Who made that decision? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, inclusive schooling falls under the Department of Education. I am the Minister responsible for inclusive schooling, so I pursued with my department, gave my department instruction to re-evaluate that inclusive schooling. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
