Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Education some questions about the reinstatement of funding for the Teacher Education Program and social work program through Aurora College. I am just trying to figure out how this is actually going to work. Are these complete and total reinstatements of the funding for those programs? I will start with that one, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the funding was always going to be there as we were looking at phasing out the programs over the next two fiscal years, and three fiscal years for the TEP program. That is going to obviously be put on hold until we sit down with committee as well as sit down with our stakeholders at Aurora College to look, as we move forward, at refocusing Aurora College and making sure that they are effective and efficient and meeting the labour market demands as well as the students' needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that response. We won't actually see a change in the line items in the main estimates in terms of the contribution to be made to Aurora College. Is that what I am hearing?
It will be looked at during the supplementaries that we are going to be bringing in later. That is how it is going to be effected.
Thanks to the Minister for that. Come September, when students come back for their program, there will be a whole cohort missing of new students in these two programs. All the teachers will be there ready to go, but they won't have any students. Is that what I am hearing? Why would we reinstate all the funding for the program if we are not taking in new students? Can the Minister explain this?
As I have mentioned before, the staff complement is going to be still in place to support the students that are currently in the program. We want to continue to support these students so that they can complete their studies and we can get them graduated as well as become part of teaching in small communities as well as getting our social workers out and working for government as well. We are going to continue to support the students that are currently in the program right now.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. We all want the students who are in the program to be supported. There is going to be a lot less work to do because we are not taking in a new cohort. Is this really a prelude to cutting the programs completely? I just don't understand why we would make this reinstatement and how it is any different than what the Minister had already committed to do. Can the Minister provide some clarification of what is going to happen with the teachers for the program? There are going to be fewer students for them to be working with because we are not taking them in. What will those teachers be doing? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have heard time and time again about these two programs: rather than cut them, why don't we fix them? I think, moving forward in the direction that we are taking as a government, we are going to sit down with Aurora College and look at the two programs that were in question. We are going to see how we can fix them. We will work with our staff to make sure that we do provide quality education that is efficient and effective for our students, but that is going to come with the review as we move forward. We are going to be working with committee to get their input on the next steps. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
