Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education. When we reviewed the Department of Education budget I asked a number of questions of the Minister and his officials with regard to inclusive schooling and how we fund inclusive schooling to our education authorities and I have a few more questions for him following up on my Member’s statement.
The Minister was presented with evidence from Yellowknife Education District No. 1 about a year ago, of a high number of severe special needs students within that district. I’d like to ask the Minister what his response was to the district officials at that time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We did receive a letter from various school boards identifying the costs of dealing with special needs. It is across the board in the Northwest Territories, not just one organization, but, Mr. Speaker, we did increase the inclusive schooling. Since 2005 until today there’s been a substantial increase in various locations within the school divisions. So, Mr. Speaker, we are looking at this very closely and we are currently dealing with enrolment issues that are challenging us right now and I think we need to focus in that area as well. But at the same time we’re currently looking at this and we’ll be discussing this in April at the chairs’ meeting. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. My point is not so much that enrolments are going down and it’s not so much that we necessarily have to increase funding. I don’t think that’s what perhaps the districts are asking for, but there is an unequal distribution of very severely high needs, very severely special needs students within districts and the allocation of students is not even across the board. My point is, then, I think the point of YK1 is that the funding needs to be reallocated and redistributed so that severely impacted special needs students, the higher number in districts get more funding. I know the Minister has said that they’re considering the issue, and again, he said that it relies on enrolments, but I’d like to know from the Minister how this consideration that he’s talking about and the consideration that’s going to be in April, how that translates into action. What is his department actually doing? Thank you.
Mahsi. We need to get the facts from all the education board levels. We are gathering the facts from our department with the superintendents of each school board. The Member talked about unequal distribution. So we need to identify that. What is she referring to? Is it just one school board that is saying this or is it all school boards? So those are the types of discussions we’re going to have in April when I meet with education chairs. So this is the important discussion that we’re going to be having and on a going forward basis we need to gather all the facts and also identify enrolment, because the number has gone down and that also has an implication on the funding as well. So we’ll continue to discuss this on a going forward basis. Mahsi.
Thank you. I appreciate that the Minister has made a commitment to gather facts, but I think the problem is that he’s gathering facts based from a very subjective viewpoint. Each individual education authority, I believe, is being asked to provide this information and the point of YK1 is that we need to have an independent study, there needs to be an impartial gathering of the number of high needs students in each jurisdiction. So I guess with the suggestion from YK1 to do an impartial gathering of data to get at the actual facts, will the Minister consider doing that? Thank you.
Mahsi. I think that it’s important to highlight the actual true facts that the school boards will be providing. We’ve heard over and over not to hire any more consultants. We have our in-house people that can certainly deal with these challenges that are at the forefront, but at the same time working with the chairs and also the superintendents and they have valuable information that we can certainly use. So, Mr. Speaker, this certainly will be discussed in the April meeting. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I appreciate that the department is willing to do this in house and that the superintendents and chairs are providing information, but if I were chair of a board, it would certainly be to my advantage to pad my numbers and to indicate that special needs students who aren’t severe may be severe and that’s why I’m suggesting that there needs to be an impartial person doing this gathering. So to the Minister, I’m not suggesting a study. Again, would he commit to having an impartial, outsider gather this data? Thank you.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We trust the board chairs and we trust the superintendents’ information that will be provided to us on the numbers that we need to work with. We will continue to work closely with them, because we provide funding to them and there’s accountability attached to that as well. So, Mr. Speaker, on a going forward basis in April we’ll be discussing and we’ll develop an action plan from there. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
