Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have a question about this Aurora College functional review. We know that the Teacher Education Program and the social work program have been put in abeyance pending the strategic planning exercise that was going on. So will these programs now be in the functional review, or is their fate going to be captured by this strategic plan? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All programs will be part of this foundational review moving forward. We did put them in abeyance. We have heard from Members in this House about, instead of cancelling it, why do not we fix it? So this gives us an opportunity to look at those programs, get some recommendations, work with the college, work with senior management at the college, continue to hear from residents, to develop and implement and support these programs that we offer to our northern students and our northern residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My concern is that putting programs into abeyance is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy for their extinction, meaning that, if instructors and students know that the program has a finite life, they won't continue on with it. They will move on to something else. Can the Minister assure us that this one year abeyance will in fact only be one year?
What this foundation will review, it will look at these programs again. It may result in some good changes, positive changes. As I have said in this House as well, when we had all the students here that came to the Legislative Assembly, one of the indicating factors about these two programs that we were reducing was that for the investment that we were putting into the programs we weren't getting the results and the outcomes that we wanted to see or that we would like to see. I encouraged the students to focus on their studies, graduate to completion, be part of the public service here in the Northwest Territories, and I continue to encourage them to do that. After a year, after this foundational review has taken place, we will see what the results are from that foundational review. I cannot make a commitment until that review is done.
I appreciate the Minister's good intentions, but he is scolding these students like they are bad children. What we have here are, in the most cases, mature students coming from other communities who have lots of commitments in their lives as care for their children and their parents and so on. It is not a matter of them not sticking to it. It is a matter of them being able to engage in this work at their own pace.
What I would like to think is that the Minister isn't looking at an all-or-nothing solution, but he might look at more flexibility, as he wants in the grade school system, to ensure these students succeed, if that is one of the possibilities the functional review will look at? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, that is what this foundational review is going to look at. It might even revamp into a whole new program within the social work area or even in the education area or based on our Skills 4 Success Action Plan, it can provide more program services within our three campuses as well as our learning centres.
The Member is saying that I am scolding these students, but I am trying to encourage them to graduate and become educated residents in the North so that they can become part of our public service and also teach and help our students in our smallest communities. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
