Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke of absentee rates of aboriginal students and how that was directly linked to the functional grade level. I’m going to ask questions of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Can the Minister tell me what he intends to do to deal with this huge problem?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is a challenge that is before us on the enrolment issue. It impacts most of the schools in the Northwest Territories. Clearly we are making substantial changes in that area. There have been numerous meetings undertaken. On the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative that’s been undertaken since last April there has been discussion on how we can improve in those areas. We have an initiative whereby we’ve given funding to school boards, education councils, so they can focus on specific areas of initiatives such as, if I can share the South Slave region where the Member’s school is part of, it will be a Get Real Program: Return, Earn, and Learn. It is an alternative high school program to keep or attract high-risk students, earning industry recognized certificates. Students will work on high school courses at their own pace, evening courses. Those are just some of the examples that have been provided to the regional education boards.
The absenteeism rates may be coming down a bit across the Territories, but absenteeism rates in Tu Nedhe are still fairly high; higher than the average. Will the Minister agree to look at the possibility of hiring parent support workers in some of these smaller communities where absenteeism rates are the highest? Perhaps part of the Building Our Future since this problem impacts the social programs departments.
I agree this could be part of the discussion that the education council could have within their mandate. We have given them additional funding to what we provide on an annual basis, so that could offset the costs of dealing with absenteeism and the enrolment issues that we’re faced with as a challenge. We are making progress. As we started since September to today, we are making slight progress and positive steps. The enrolments are starting to climb again. Those are discussions that can easily be undertaken at the education council level.
The Minister sits on the Building Our Future strategic committee along with the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Premier. These are two important positions dealing with our social issues across the Territories. Would the Minister ensure that this item is a standing item on the agenda for this committee? The item I am referring to again is the absenteeism rates in small aboriginal communities.
Truly I am part of the committee that has been established. This is certainly one of the highest priorities that we have within our education department, working along with the education council and the Dehcho education authority to improve the enrolment, the absenteeism that’s before us, and to make that a successful project in the communities. We are making progress and will continue to discuss that as a priority item.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through this Building Our Future committee can the Minister commit resources or have the committee commit resources to the district education authorities in communities where absentee rates are the highest? I’m talking about resources so these people can maybe hire someone to help the parents get their kids to school.
This could be one venue that we can certainly stress to identify funding, but at the same time there has been huge success in the South Slave region, of which the Member’s schools are part of. We want to use that as a pilot project where they are almost meeting Canadian standards. So certainly those are the areas that we will continue to focus on and would like to use as a pilot project for the Northwest Territories. We’ll continue to make those a success.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
