Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the Education Renewal Initiative. For some reason, as I’ve raised in this House many times before, it seems it’s our educators on the front line who are discouraged from expressing their opinion on a lot of things, and for what reason, I do not know because I would say they are in the best position to help us put together the best policies and practices to educate our children. I’d like to, for the record, ask the Minister if there was extensive consultation directly with educators for this Education Renewal Initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t like the word consultation; I like the word engaging. We have engaged with our stakeholders and they are part of the educators, the principals, the program coordinators. The Member is referring to front-line workers. I totally agree with her that we need to get ideas from those individuals. If we have missed out on those individuals and their input, I would like to hear from them either through my office, through my department, through DEAs, DECS, various partners that we have in the field. We’d love to hear from them. So, Mr. Speaker, if we have missed out on those certain individuals, by all means, I am open to those suggestions as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
As a government, we come up with new initiatives from time to time; maybe all the time, I’m not sure. The Minister has made mention of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and now this, with the Education Renewal Initiative. We have heard some pretty dire statistics on the preparedness of students and even ongoing statistics. I would like to suggest to you that those statistics are not prevalent in all communities, in all schools and in all regions. I would say those statistics do exist, but I would say there are schools where there is a lot of success.
I just opened the inside page of the Hub today, and the Parent Action Committee has taken out a full-page ad to illustrate the achievement of the high school students in Hay River. Mr. Bouchard and I had the opportunity to attend the end-of-session assembly at one of the other grade schools in Hay River. The kids that were going up there that we were giving out medals and awards to for achievement in their academics and sports and everything else, was just amazing. The results of these tests in Hay River, I must say – and I’m not trying to put anybody else down or trying to brag here – but the results of these achievement tests in Hay River have just been skyrocketing. It’s just amazing.
This initiative, is this going to make everybody do things differently or could it be targeted to those areas where most needed? Thank you.
The Member is correct; there are success stories in other regions as well. The South Slave’s literacy coach has been very successful to date. The Phoenix School is another one that’s been highlighted on numerous occasions, as well as Beaufort-Delta e-learning. There are all of these success stories. Of course, we are integrating into education renewal as well.
Of course, we’ve listened to the parents and educators and they’ve told us to focus on those individual communities that are struggling. That’s what we are doing right now, based on their input, their feedback. So, what the Member is referring to, this is our approach and we will continue to move that forward. Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m very happy to hear the Minister say this will not be a broad-sweep approach, because sometimes when the Department of Education comes out with new initiatives, they expect all teachers to take some new approach and best practices and basically have to revamp the way that they are educating the students in their classrooms and sometimes it’s more disruptive than helpful, to tell you the truth. At least from what I hear from them.
If we’re not going to take the broad-brush approach to the implementation of this Education Renewal Initiative, I would like to ask the Minister by what means are they going to establish the areas that need to be targeted to bring all regions and all schools up to a standard that’s acceptable. Thank you.
Mahsi. Focusing on the communities and also the regions, again, we have to work closely with the district education authorities and the councils. They have given us positive feedback on the success stories, as the Member is referring to, and focusing on the small communities. One of the pillars is focusing on small communities, staff development and student assistance. As we roll out the action plan, it will be captured, focusing in certain areas that require attention.
The Member is asking about the broad sweep and the particular focus. Those are discussions that we’ve had throughout our engagement. I’m looking forward to delivering this action plan in this House and rolling out the program in the communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Included in this rollout, will there be a defined reporting, monitoring, so that we can see what this new initiative is accomplishing? We need to measure the outcomes of these things that we roll out and that we initiate. So I’d like to ask the Minister, will that be clearly included in this initiative so that we can be reported back to on how it is affecting the statistics. Thank you.
Mahsi. Yes, the monitoring, evaluating and also the measurement of how the program will be running as far as the implementation and rolling out the program. So we will be keeping standing committee up to speed and engaging them as we roll out the program, short-term and long-term. So, yes, I agree with the Member that we will be monitoring this whole evaluation. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
