Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. This time of the year is time for graduations, and this department, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, aside from the Department of Health and Social Services, is the second-biggest department in the GNWT. Can the Minister please inform us of the results of the various education initiatives undertaken over the past few years to renew our education system and motivate our students? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are just in the process, actually, of doing a review of our education renewal, all of the initiatives, but I can talk about a few that have been successful, not based on statistics, but just on what we are seeing.
Our Northern Distance Learning, huge success. Again, I don't have the stats to show that. We are just reviewing it now. I will use Ulukhaktok as one of my examples. I know there are other communities. Three students who graduated from Grade 12 in that community who would have normally had to take upgrading have now got the credentials that they can actually go to post-secondary. Two of them, I believe, went straight into post-secondary. That is a huge success, in my opinion, without the statistical background. Other communities are seeing the same.
Our six career and education advisors who we are just bringing in now, that won't be a part of the evaluation now. I think that is critical. These positions are just piloting the six. They are piloting our new pathways. Their whole job is to help get kids engaged, to keep them going forward, to actually help them pick out what career, what courses they need to get into the career that they do.
It is not limited to high school, which is another thing I like. It is actually up to age 24, so a part of that is getting kids back. Sorry. Anyone under 30 is, to me, a kid because I am old. Getting these students back in school is important. I think that is a huge success. Again, that won't be reviewed now because it is just starting, but I think that is a missing piece.
The other thing that I really think that we are working on and I am really proud of is Indigenizing our curriculum. We have seen that in the MLA's own riding, how it can be an advantage to students who have their language. It is part of self-esteem. It is part of giving us pride. I always say, as a social worker, when people feel good about themselves, they make better, not the best sometimes, but better decisions in their life. Indigenizing our education is part of that, and I am a huge proponent of that. Again, we will have to wait to see the results of that, but I think that most Members can say that that is a good step.
The other thing that I really want to focus on, too, is the partnership with Health and Social Services in bringing youth mental health workers into our schools. Again, it is a new initiative; it hasn't been tested yet. The rates of suicide, the rates of children dropping out of schools, the rates of kids developmentally, teenage-hood is a horrible time. When kids are teenagers, it is known, it is researched that they switch. They go from being that beautiful little child to, "Oh my goodness. There is a pimple on my nose, and everybody is going to be picking on me." Often with that, they need extra help. Sometimes, parents don't have that capacity, or the teachers, so having mental health teacher supports in the schools, I think, is going to be critical.
As well, we are doing things like looking at our Literacy in the Disciplines initiative. We are trying to get more literacy. We are trying to get more numeracy into the lower grades. I think those are some of the initiatives that we are working on that, personally, Mr. Speaker, I am quite proud of. This wasn't all my work. I know this was from Ministers before, but whoever brought them in, it was a great idea. I am hoping that we will continue them into the future.
Some very good initiative in that. I actually ran out of space in terms of writing about seven key initiatives that the Minister has undertaken. There are some challenges. One of the challenges that we are well aware of is attendance rates in small communities. Can the Minister please tell us why attendance rates are not improving?
Attendance rates are a huge concern. I don't really have the answer to why they are not improving. Everybody, in my opinion, has been kind of blaming everybody else. Everyone is afraid of it. They are saying, "Is it the parents' responsibility? Is it the Aboriginal governments' responsibility? Is it the community's responsibility? Is it the teachers' responsibility?" Those questions are not okay for me.
I have actually brought it up at the Education Leaders, which has all of the chairs and the superintendents from all of the regions' 10 education boards, councils, authorities. I said this is an issue. I had to bring it up twice because I think they were afraid of it. I said, "It is an issue for me, and so I want it on the agenda." I said, "We need to look at possible solutions because it is easy to say, 'If the kids don't get there, it is not our problem,' but it becomes our problem because these children coming later, they might not have the qualifications. They hold up other studies. We have to spend more time. We need to tackle this."
Unfortunately, the last Education Leaders meeting has happened for this Assembly. I have brought it up to them. I asked it to be on the agenda, and I am hoping that the Minister in the next Assembly will carry this forward, because it is not okay that our children are not going to school.
Can the Minister please tell us whether she will support a reduction of funding to schools where attendance and enrolment rates decline?
Currently, actually, the funding model doesn't impact if a student doesn't attend. There is no consequence. However, if the student doesn't register at the beginning of the year, there could be an impact in the funding formula because the funding formula is based on the first month of enrolment. Then after that, it is provided for the rest of the year. They are always kind of a year behind. I am not 100 percent satisfied with the funding formula. Other MLAs have asked me about that. In fact, other superintendents have had issues with that, and chairs.
I have actually committed to doing a funding review, looking across Canada to see what other jurisdictions are doing and seeing if there is a better way that we can actually provide this funding because the way that we do it now, it lays people up. If it is based on how many people are enrolled, this comes from superintendents, it can lead to schools actually falsifying their enrolment rates. That didn't come from me. That came from a superintendent.
The other thing, like I said, it can be penalizing for smaller communities. People are not having 10 children anymore. They are having two, three, maybe one, so our rates of children are going down. We have to look at that because it has the potential to really have a harmful effect on our smallest communities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in my questions, the Minister had stated that she has posed to the chairs of the various education authorities throughout the NWT in terms of addressing the attendance issue and who is responsible for it. My question is: can the Minister please advise of the department's plans to address the issues of low attendance with the proposed changes to our post-secondary landscape? Mahsi.
I am a bit confused because post-secondary education, of course, attendance is not mandatory at all. That is about the student actually applying for their own future. I don't think there is any post-secondary across Canada that makes attendance be a requirement. Like I said, though, there are requirements that say children who are over six and under 16 must be registered in school. Although it doesn't say they have to attend every day, they need to attend to be able to keep up and to be successful. It is an issue that we need to address. I am not willing to say it is parents. I am not willing to say it is because of residential schools. I am not willing to say it is teachers. What I am willing to say is that it is our issue as a society, and we have an obligation to take care of it. I am hoping that the Minister in the next Assembly will take this as a priority as I did and deal with this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
