Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in my Member’s statement I spoke about the Alberta achievement tests and some of the failings in our teaching in our small schools, in achievements, and concern of parents. When the Minister talks about education renewal, what exactly is he renewing and is he aware that what’s being taught is not what’s expected to be learned with that type of approach? Concerned parents have come to me time and time again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the education renewal is to look further into our educational system, how we can improve the programming and the courses that are being delivered, especially in the small, isolated communities. It has been brought to our attention in this House and by Assembly Members, as well, that we need to improve our education system. That’s where we’re at.
We have reached out and gauged the general public, the parents and educators, to hear their views about where we should improve. Some of the highlights that they’ve come across are: system accountability; professional capacity, with respect to teachers and also the support staff; assessment practices in the small community schools, which has been a priority topic within the small community schools; and also the Early Childhood Development Framework that’s before us in this House, and now we’re going to be developing action plans towards that inter-departmentally between Health and Social Services and my department. There is also an inter-departmental approach with respect to all the different departments that need to work together. These are some of the areas of focus within the Education Renewal Initiative that we are moving forward on. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister said something interesting about getting out to the communities and that’s what I’ve also heard is that parents want to be engaged. So I look forward to the rollout of that plan, but more specifically to my issue, what alternatives are Education, Culture and Employment considering to the Alberta achievement test and why is the department thinking about changing the way it measures student performance? Thank you.
Mahsi. We are closely monitoring Alberta education changes. There are changes that are coming and we’re monitoring very closely. The Alberta achievement test, it’s also changing in their jurisdiction. So how it’s going to look, we’re not sure at this point, but we are working closely with them and there are various assessment tools that we use within the schools within the Northwest Territories as well. Assessing students will continue to be a priority of this government, this department. The education system will not change as a result of the Education Renewal and Innovation Initiative that’s before us.
So assessment is part of the whole Education Renewal Initiative and again, Alberta is changing their overall educational system. They’re changing their Education Act and we are following their curriculum, as well, the Grade 12 examination and so forth. So if there are any changes that are coming then we need to be prepared for it.
So within our Education Renewal Initiative within the Northwest Territories, we are making changes that will benefit the students, benefit the communities of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
In my research from the past six years, our students have not improved when they’re taking the Alberta achievement test. So do we actually understand why our students are failing the Alberta achievement test and can the Minister explain this phenomenon? What factors are involved here and why are we consistently failing these Alberta achievement tests in our grades? Thank you.
Mahsi. We’ve also done our research, as well, throughout Canada, national and also international research. We also sought out some information and ideas from positions from the northern people and provided direction for the changes that we need.
The Education Renewal Initiative is based on the fact that we need to change our educational system and share in the feedback of the general public, the parents, the grandparents, our educators, who feel that we need to change our educational system. We’ve heard over and over from Regular Members on can we improve in those areas so our Grade 12 students can go directly to post-secondary. We are working on that with the Education Renewal Initiative.
The Early Childhood Development Framework is another area where we’re focusing on the early ages so they can be prepared when they graduate from Grade 12 and go directly to post-secondary, university.
The Education Renewal Initiative will also address these issues through the development of a comprehensive K to 12 Literacy Strategy that’s based on the input of the general public as well. So these are just some of the key initiatives we are pursuing as a department and we’ll continue to push that further. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad the department wants to see improvements. My constituents and my parents want to see improvements, too, but dropping the Alberta achievement test, I’m just not convinced that’s the right thing to do right now. You’ve got to have some other baseline to measure student performance if we are going to improve it.
As I indicated, Alberta is changing their Education Act as well. The Alberta achievement test may be in a different format, some sort of an assessment that we need to follow as a guideline. We’ve done that for the past how many years now and with this whole Education Renewal Initiative and the Early Childhood Development Framework, that will definitely improve our education system throughout the Northwest Territories, K to 12, even at that early age. At that point in time, those individuals that are doing their 3, 6 and 9 assessment tests, we’re hoping that it will improve over the years.
So those are our goals and objectives and we are reaching out to the general public to seek their input and we’ve sought that and we’ve got that already. So we are moving forward on this on the right path. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
