Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For over a decade, the NWT has had problems with student achievement. After five years of education renewal, there is still little improvement in student achievement. Can the Minister comment on the state of the situation for student achievement and whether or not she believes education renewal is working? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The education renewal was to take place over a 10-year span, from 2014 to 2024. Some of the initiatives have been implemented; some of them are just in pilot stages; and some of them are still in development. Are they working? I think that, yes, some of them are working. Do I think that it is acceptable that we have a low achievement in the territories, still? No. That is absolutely not acceptable. It breaks my heart when I hear that children are dropping out, that people are having to do upgrading, so, no, Mr. Speaker, I don't think it's acceptable that we have low achievement rates. I think we still have a long way to go.
You know, I appreciate the Minister is relatively new to this portfolio, and it's good to hear that she believes it's unacceptable. So what is she going to do? What kind of tangible, quantifiable changes can the Minister point to that have taken place, specifically in the way we approach student achievement, that the department has undertaken to date?
I did take note when the MLA did his opening comments and he said that success isn't only academic; it's also succeeding in life. He is absolutely right, Mr. Speaker. It's not just about whether you get an A, B, C, or a D, or if you drop out. It's about can you succeed in life, and so there are some things that we have done that I am really excited about.
We have done a Healthy Food for Learning. There is a direct link that says that children who are not fed properly do not learn well. Every school in the Northwest Territories now has food in it. That is incredible for me. The northern distance learning, I am going up to a graduation in Ulukhaktok, I think it's next month. I have lots of grads. It's one of the most exciting communities I am going to, not because it's a special community, but it's special because three of those students, through the distance education learning, are graduating and going to post-secondary education in the South without taking upgrading. Yes, it's incredible.
What else are we doing? The community mental health pilot project; we know that mental health is linked to student success. We are expanding that in partnership with Health and Social Services. We are getting counsellors into the schools to work with children. Great initiative; I could not ask for better.
Supporting teachers, the instructional practices, I mean, that is just new. We still have to wait for it to come out, but teachers cannot be overworked and expected to do everything in an eight-hour day. It does not work, so we need to give them space. I am excited to see what will happen with that.
The Northern Pathways, one of the most exciting things I have heard yet, we are working on it. We are expanding it. We need to reach children younger, before they drop out, to kind of see where they want to go in life and give them the tools to get there. So there are initiatives happening. I could go on all day, Mr. Speaker, but I know I have to wrap it up.
The Minister is very passionate about that file.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and, I agree, the Minister could go on all day, but let's get back to the business at hand. Another comment, you know, perhaps when the media is enquiring into the low achievement, the Minister could be the one to respond instead of her department, because that is a lot more optimistic than the message that the public is getting, which is things are not moving as far as they should. The action plan for education renewal is extremely ambitious. It has around 200 targets that were supposed to be met by this point in time. Of those 200 targets, how many targets have actually been met, Mr. Speaker?
I take that as a compliment, that I could go on all day. I am excited about this portfolio. How many of the targets have been met? As the Member stated, I am just new to the portfolio. I have talked about a few that I have heard about that I am totally passionate about and said, yes, let's go further with those. I have not yet gone through the whole 200 of them, but I am working diligently to go through them, and I promise, I will go through every one of those 200 ones and make sure that we are on target. Keep what's working, expand what's successful, and throw out what's showing not to be successful.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I look forward to getting an update on those results. On to the reporting of the action plan. There has been little to no reporting of this action plan that ended in 2016-2017. Will the Minister commit to providing Members of this House, and also the public, with an update that clearly articulates what education renewal has achieved and what the department is going to do moving forward? There are no updates on the website, which is where the public are going to get their information. Can the Minister commit to fixing that, and getting information out to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, education in the Northwest Territories should be about best practices. Best practices does talk about transparency and accountability. I have already been working on them about accountability. Transparency, I will commit that, the next session, we will provide an update to standing committee. I will do a Minister's statement in the House to talk about where we are. Websites are not my strong point, but I will push the department to actually make sure that our website is updated before the next session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
