Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to put the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment back on the hot seat here. Has the Minister considered the implications for the NWT of both the 2012 Supreme Court decision that recognized that learning to read is a basic human right and the Ontario Human Rights Commission's public inquiry into the right to read? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in March of 2022 I delivered a similar Member's statement on the sorry, reading being a privilege, and or sorry, not being a privilege and being a human right. Jeez, I need to focus here, sorry. And so yes, Mr. Speaker, I've considered the importance of literacy, and I share the Member's concerns.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that we're on the same page here. Can the Minister explain whether the NWT inclusive schooling directive or handbook recognizes that learning to read is a basic human right and therefore a top priority goal for all students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ministerial directive calls on all students to have access to quality education programs within a common learning environment in the community in which the student resides, including being able to access instructional and support strategies that remove barriers to learning. Mr. Speaker, when demonstrating a need for extra support, a student support plan with focused supports for difficulty in reading is created to provide supports and reduce barriers in conjunction with the school team and the parent or guardian. ECE offers funding to education bodies for assistive technologies to support the learning goals of students. But I think it's also important that we acknowledge that the demands of teachers have changed over the last few years as have the number of students that are needing access to services. And I think this is also a good point to also talk about the need to ensure that we're getting students to class so that they have access to those supports from their teachers and from their education bodies. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So yesterday the Minister told us that when we look at the achievement tests over the years that have been implemented through Alberta curriculum, things are not seeming to get better; things are not improving.
Can the Minister commit to ensure that our education system is well funded enough to provide the necessary supports and interventions to ensure all students can learn to read? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE allots funding to each education body using the school funding framework. This framework allocates funding equitably and, outside of prescribed funds, allows flexibility to accommodate local decisionmaking. I will say, Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely more and more demand for dollars within our education system and one of the tasks that's been afforded to me this term is to work on the Education Act, along with our partners, and the school funding formula will be a part of that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To drill down to one item that I mentioned in my statement, will the Minister commit to ensuring that all students who require one, will be able to access a speech language pathologist in order to learn to communicate effectively? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this might take me a little bit longer than 30 seconds to answer.
I wish I could say yes to this, but it's not even a million-dollar question; it's a much more than a million-dollar question. It was something that Education, Culture and Employment saw as a need in schools, and so they put together a territorialbased support team with the dream of being able to bring rehabilitation services to schools. That team was originally put in place in Yellowknife with a dream of one day having regionalbased territorial support teams so that all schools would have access to the supports that it needs so that students can even begin to access education. That team has never been able to be fully staffed despite the great efforts of Education, Culture and Employment. I know that Health and Social Services also has vacancies within their rehabilitative services team that have been ongoing and chronic vacancies. And so while I would love to say yes to this, and I know that many parents and many students across the territory would love me to say yes to this, it is an effort that we have tried to fill and have not been able to. That said, I see this as a big deal, and I think that it is a gap that we need to fill and as such, the Minister of Health and Social Services and I, along with each of our teams, have already sat down and started discussions about how we address the need for rehabilitative services in schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
