Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have a few questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As junior kindergarten moves forward, we had a presentation earlier this month on what they plan to roll out. I would like to commend the Tlicho Government in taking over junior kindergarten and offering it in their language. I would like to see a lot more of that in the other regions as well.
Will the Minister work with other regions to ensure that happens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Tlicho language is one of the prime examples, along with Fort Providence and the immersion programs and other communities who have initiated their own immersion programs as well. That’s part of our overall goals and objections in introducing junior kindergarten. They can work very closely with the learning communities, as well, when it comes to culture and language preservation. I agree with the Member that we would like to see all 33 communities deliver similar to what Tlicho have initiated. I support that. We need to work towards that. I believe the three-year phased approach for junior kindergarten will cover all 33 communities. That will offset part of the initiative as we move forward to touch on the Tlicho immersion program in the Member’s riding and other Members’ ridings as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. There’s been a lot of talk these last couple days about junior kindergarten and there doesn’t seem to be much support from here in Yellowknife and I can understand that. It will affect a lot of the daycares here in the city and my biggest concern is the education in the North. It’s quite clear that we’re well behind other provinces and jurisdictions. We need to do something and I believe junior kindergarten is a good start.
Will the Minister ensure that they follow through with the plans that they’ve had to implement more programs this fall? Thank you.
Mahsi. That is our overall plan, starting 2014, the new school year, we’re going to be reaching out to 29 communities, especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The Minister’s riding is a prime example. He’s part of a community that would benefit once we roll out the program, and other communities as well. This has huge potential, very beneficial to the communities, especially those isolated communities that do not have this programming. The Member is quite correct that some of the communities are not in the same position as the larger communities. I totally understand that. So this is an area that we’re moving forward with and it will capture that. Mahsi.
The Minister must know something that I don’t, because last time I looked, I’m a Regular Member.
---Laughter
But I would be interested in being a Minister down the road. To the question. There doesn’t seem to be support here in the larger centres for junior kindergarten, so will the Minister look at possibly not rolling that out into the larger centres and focus more on the smaller centres? Thank you.
Mahsi. Our role is we want to capture all students, all children as best as we can and that means covering all 33 communities, small communities and larger centres. As the Minister responsible for 33 communities, I want to capture those students, even the unborn students as well.
So we are going to be rolling it out to 29 communities and then the following year we’ll be in Hay River and the last phase will be to cover the Yellowknife sector. So this is an area that has been the prime focus. We are going to be rolling out this fall for the next three-year approach. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
