Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask Minister Lafferty, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, a couple questions about Junior Kindergarten.
I just want to note that I feel the general population has understood the delays in the larger communities. It’s still going forward in the other 23 communities for this year that want it. I also want to say that I don’t believe the delays were caused by the middleclass, the low-income people and single parents out there that could not use the daycare or daycare operators anyway.
I’d like to ask the Minister, how well is Junior Kindergarten received in the 23 communities that use it? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision came down from this government to continue with the 23 communities this year and also next year. Part of the process, obviously, is to re-evaluate the programming that’s going to be happening over the coming months, within eight months. The feedback we’re getting to date has been positive overall, and there hasn’t been major issues pertaining to delivery of JK. There were some questions about specific areas of clarification, so those are some of the information and also calls and e-mails that came to my department. There may be others out there that we may not aware of, but what came to our attention is there haven’t been any major issues. Mahsi.
I know that we heard that there were funding fears out there.
I’d just like to ask the Minister, with the 23 communities that are using it now, how is it being funded and what are the plans for the future? Thank you.
Mahsi. Part of the decision that was made by this government is to continue with the 23 communities this year and the following year based on the funding allocations from PTR of up to $1.8 million a year. So that will subsidize the 23 communities where the research has found it’s mostly needed in the small, isolated communities. So that’s where we are currently delivering Junior Kindergarten.
But keep in mind that we are in the process of re-evaluating our program delivery over the coming months as well. Mahsi.
When the Minister talks about evaluating in the next coming months, does he have a time frame that he can let us know? Is it in December and once again at the end of the school year? How frequent will the evaluations be? Thank you.
It’s very important that we reach out to the stakeholders, the parents and educators to share their perspective, the community members. Those individuals are currently delivering Junior Kindergarten, as well, in the communities. So, the Premier made a statement that within the coming months, within the eight months from now, we should have the final results of the overall review of our programing. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that we’re working towards evaluating it, because it’s a much needed program, I believe.
As we move forward, can the Minister know… Will he compile an overall report for this House? Thank you.
Once the review is completed, I would have to share that information with the standing committee, so that should be coming within the next coming months. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
