Mr. Speaker, I have a motion.
WHEREAS our children are our future and the way we treat them will have impacts that will be felt for generations;
AND WHEREAS the literature on early childhood education demonstrates that the success of junior kindergarten depends upon the requirement that high quality programs be delivered by fully trained early childhood education workers;
AND WHEREAS Kerry McCuaig of the Atkinson Institute and junior kindergarten implementation consultant to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has written that the requirement for high quality programming through fully trained early childhood education workers is non-negotiable;
AND WHEREAS research also shows that low quality programming can have a detrimental effect and actually delay the full and healthy development of our children;
AND WHEREAS the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is proposing implementation of junior kindergarten in small communities using elementary school teachers while encouraging them to take course work in early childhood education;
AND WHEREAS early childhood education workers are professionals that should be paid the same as wages as our teachers;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment be required to ensure that there is at least one fully trained early childhood education worker for every junior kindergarten group before the program is implemented;
AND FURTHER, that early childhood education workers be recognized as education professionals and paid wages accordingly;
AND FURTHER, that Aurora College immediately implement a training program that graduates fully qualified early childhood education workers who meet federal standards;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 90 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing this motion to come forward to have a debate on it.
This motion is a good news story for the small communities. Certainly, there are a wide range of opinions as to the program and how it’s going to be implemented and how it’s going to be rolled out in the coming years.
Our small communities, at least 10 of them, some of our communities do not have some type of programming for our junior kindergarten schools. As in the newspaper, it’s been quoted from Mr. Kochon, that’s welcome news to Colville Lake.
Twenty-nine communities next year will have this program. It will help them have the children get ready for kindergarten. It’s optional, and this program is setting up our students for the long term to do well in their educational career. Also, in the News/North report that we had a pilot program in Norman Wells and all indications have shown that the program is being successfully run and that the teacher was saying that the program is doing well. I support this program. I think it’s good news and I think we’re embarking on a long-term goal that families in these small communities now have an option to bring their children to school and have them in a structured environment that will get them prepared for their life-long career and their education.
I welcome debate on this motion. It’s a good program, and we need to stop sitting and start doing some things in our communities that will make a difference for the families and the people in our small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I’ll allow the seconder to the motion to speak. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to second this motion. Residents in my communities are supportive of junior kindergarten, and the more and more I learn about how we’re going to implement and the need for early childhood education workers is a critical component of junior kindergarten. Right now, I don’t know how many early childhood education workers we have that we can integrate into the Junior Kindergarten Program, and that’s what this motion speaks about, about getting them involved, getting them involved early. There’s something to be said about teachers not being prepared for early childhood years, which is the four-year-olds in junior kindergarten, and I certainly see that need for early childhood education workers.
The motion, in the paragraph “now therefore I move,” indicates that we want early childhood education workers for every junior kindergarten group before the program is implemented. I have issues with that, because that motion would say to government stop everything unless there are early childhood workers. I know that the resources aren’t there. The Minister did speak in the House that there is a commitment to get early childhood education workers, and perhaps in his rebuttal he can address that, but for now, I believe that the motion is too strong and might delay implementation of the junior kindergarten. Our communities are looking forward to it.
With that, I’d like to move an amendment to the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the amendment. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honorable Member for Sahtu, that Motion 13-17(5) be amended by deleting the words “before the program is implemented” from the first paragraph of the resolution portion of the motion. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. We’re dealing with the amendment then we’re dealing with the motion. To the amendment. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, there is good support for junior kindergarten in the small communities. I’m very pleased that in the first year of the program it will be in the small communities, and we’re looking forward to that and looking forward with the inclusion and a plan to include and have more early childhood education workers to support the junior kindergarten program. However, like I said, the way the motion reads is government don’t do it unless. You have to do it before the program is implemented. When it reads that way it has implications for my communities. I know that they want it and they want it this coming fall as proposed by the government. That’s why, as a seconder, I have no problem amending it to delete “before the program is implemented.”
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the amendment. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t support the amendment. The whole intent of this motion is to make sure that the spaces, the programs for our junior kindergarten, four-year-old aged children, to make sure that it’s a quality program, and in order to make sure it’s a quality program we need to have early childhood educators who are running the program. We need to have people who are trained in early childhood education techniques. We need to have people who will ensure that the quality of the program is of a high quality. There’s not much point in running a Junior Kindergarten Program if we’re simply going to throw them in and treat them like school-aged children and put them into a classroom, sit them in desks. That’s not the intent of early childhood education. Without a trained early childhood educator, there’s not much point in having this motion. The whole intent is to provide quality staff for a quality program. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This phrase is awkward, but it is the kernel of the motion, I believe. I think what Mr. Menicoche is saying, and I agree, is we don’t want the whole program stopped if some community, JK group, doesn’t have an ECE worker. It’s just that that particular JK group should not go ahead until there is an early childhood education worker. On that basis, Mr. Chair, I would like to propose an amendment to the amendment. Mahsi.
An amendment to the amendment. The Clerk is advising we take a five-minute break.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Bromley, to your amendment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the amendment to Motion 13-17(5) be amended by adding the following after the phrase “first paragraph after the resolution portion of the motion”: and replacing them with the words “before that group begins in that community”. I think we need one more minute, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Madam Clerk, would you see Mr. Bromley.
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Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Motion 13-17(5) be amended by deleting the sixth paragraph of the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the amendment, Mr. Menicoche. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe in deleting this, we have not failed to speak of the wages because further down in the motion it says that early childhood education workers be recognized as education professionals and paid wages accordingly. I think that covers the issue of the pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the amendment.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
The motion is carried as amended. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Now to the motion.
---Laughter
To the motion as amended.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
