Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for Minister Lafferty, ECE. The Minister has often said that there are no complaints regarding the implementation of Junior Kindergarten in the Northwest Territories. In contrast to this, I am told that ECE staff are not allowed to take complaints about Junior Kindergarten and that there are indeed serious issues that need to be addressed and are looking for a responsible party. Issues raised by my colleague from Mackenzie Delta certainly seem to confirm this disconnect.
Does the Minister have a clear process for registering and responding to complaints or concerns arising out of the rushed implementation of Junior Kindergarten in the 23 participating schools this fall with the threat of losing $15,000 if they didn’t do it this year?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. What I said was that there are no major issues or complaints brought to our attention. With any rollout of various programs or projects in the communities, there is always room for improvement. Those are just some of the areas that come into play where teachers ask certain questions about the JK delivery or an avenue that they can turn to. There is ongoing communication dialogue between my department, DEAs and DECs and, also, working with various organizations that are currently delivering the Junior Kindergarten program. I’m a firm believer that there needs to be an open communication dialogue. If there is room for improvement, I would like to hear about it and how we can improve programming for the second phase and third phase and so forth.
I would suggest that these complaints go way beyond what the Minister is suggesting how we can improve the program. These are issues with the current implementation. We have seen the public consultative process design for the feedback on the devolution process. Basically, go to our website and send us a note.
What is the process in place for ECE to gather, catalogue and respond to complaints from early childhood education workers and the public about start-up and emerging problems with Junior Kindergarten in the NWT, or do we not have one?
Mahsi. When we first rolled out the JK a couple of months ago, we knew that there needs to be a response team. We did establish a Junior Kindergarten response team made up of regional representatives and also from ECE perspectives. So they are the ones who are giving us advice, suggestions and making some changes along the way. Not only that, from the general public, the professionals, the teachers, the parents, there is also a hotline within my department that we’ve established so we can hear the general public’s perspective on delivery of the Junior Kindergarten in the 23 communities, the regional perspective and, also, a Yellowknife three-phased approach. Mahsi.
Thank you. From what I hear anecdotally from constituents and those involved, there is a chill in the ranks of ECE surrounding any acknowledgements of difficulty with the implementation of this program, and this goes for the regions.
What direction has the Minister and his senior staff given to regional staff on procedures for dealing with complaints about Junior Kindergarten from ECE workers and the public?
Mahsi. There are various avenues. As I stated, there is a hotline on the website and also on the phone and the response team that consists of the regional representatives from my Department of Education, Culture and Employment to bring any concerns, to bring any ideas on how to deliver this particular program. So any other forms of communication, there’s always, as I stated before, room for improvement, how we can best communicate to the parents, to the teachers, to the children that we are teaching. So we’re doing what we can to be transparent and be accountable for the best delivery of this program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly this doesn’t fit with what I’m hearing. In the real world, the introduction of a large, complex program such as JK would be expected to generate some complaints, both with a philosophy of the program’s mechanics of its implementation.
Does the Minister still insist that there have been zero complaints from the implementation of Junior Kindergarten across the NWT, with the exception of that raised by the Member from Mackenzie Delta, or if not, what are some of the complaints and how have they been dealt with? Mahsi.
Mahsi. As I stated, there is no major issue or complaint about the delivery of Junior Kindergarten in 23 of our smaller or remote communities. There’s been some questions here and there, more clarification from the teachers that are teaching our Junior Kindergarten. They are being trained.
So, as I stated before, there hasn’t been much of a major issue or complaint brought to my attention as Minister responsible. But with any issues or concerns that are brought forward by the teachers or the principals or the organizations, we follow up with them, and I can provide some of the detailed information that we’ve heard to the Members as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
