Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education had a Minister's statement today, “Strengthening Support for Students,” and I just have some questions about that.
He mentioned that child and youth counsellors are going to be phased in across the territory and they are going to be in the schools. A concern that was brought to me is that, while it is great to have the counsellors in the schools - like the rest of the country, we are sorely lacking when it comes to dealing with mental health issues - the issue is that students will have to leave class to go see these counsellors.
Is that the plan? Are we just putting counsellors in the school, and, during class time, students will have to leave class to go see these counsellors? I would just like some clarification. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in my Minister's statement, I did mention the child and youth care counsellors in the schools. We will be piloting that initiative out with the Department of Health and Social Services. We are expecting these child and youth care counsellors to be in the schools but also to be offering services to residents in the communities throughout the whole year.
In terms of the Member asking questions about whether they will be in the school or do they have to be out, we also want to make sure that we do protect privacy and make sure that the students have the confidence that their privacy will be protected.
If that is the case and they do need to go outside the school to go to a health centre or to a hospital to get the services, we feel that students need to have access to such services, whether it is for a mental health concern or other issues where they do need to see the counsellor. Privacy is important, and we want to make sure that students can have that confidence, if they need to see a counsellor, that their privacy will be protected. If they are comfortable being in the school, we will have those child and youth care counsellors in the school. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate everything the Minister has said, and I thank him for his response. I guess the concern that was raised is, if students do go to see counsellors during class time, which is their right and I am glad they have that option, they will miss a class. With some of these courses, you have to be there every class to stay on track.
Will the department be doing anything to ensure that there are appropriate supports for students who maybe miss class to go to counselling? If you start falling behind in school, that just adds to your problems.
I do appreciate the concern. When students do miss class to go out and seek other supports that they need to be successful in life, we would work with the education authorities to ensure that teachers who are in a situation where their students are leaving class, whether it's for a medical appointment, dentist appointment, or if it's for counselling, that the teacher makes every effort to ensure that the student gets the materials or information that they have missed for that day or a couple of days.
We are putting counsellors into the schools, but it sounds like we are not giving any support for any other issues that arise from it, such as students falling behind. Basically, we are just saying that teachers have to pick up the slack. I just want to confirm that there are no more academic supports that go along with this.
Every education authority works with their schools to develop their school-year plan. As such, with any supports that are needed, the administration will work on looking at providing those supports. I know there are schools that actually have tutors that go in after school hours. As well, I know there are a couple of schools here, in Yellowknife, that have evening classes that allow students that might have missed the morning or might have missed the day to come into school in the evening and catch up on their school work. There are definitely innovative options out there to help students succeed with their academic courses.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, the country, I think, as a whole is behind when it comes to dealing with mental health. This is a great start, but it just seems like an addon.
Going forward, I think we need a more holistic approach. Would the Minister commit to increasing funding to schools so that they can offer additional academic support to help these students who are accessing these mental health counsellors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned, we are putting in career and education advisors as well this academic year. The whole education renewal that we have been working on over the past number of years is going to hopefully impact the way our students learn, the way our students succeed, the way our students are able to graduate, right from the JK to 12 system. With our new investment in the career and education advisors, I think we are going to be helping our students to complete graduation, look at a career that they might want to take, or, further, going to a postsecondary institution.
The child and youth care counsellors are another way that we are going to be helping our students with any of their mental health and other possible social concerns that they have. Overall, collectively, all of the investments that we are making in education, through education renewal, I do believe and I am confident that we will start to see an increase in graduation rates, as well as students' success. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
