Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier today I spoke a little bit about the barriers and some of the challenges that, in particular, Indigenous people have in accessing post-secondary education. Sometimes I think we need to look at what some of the gaps are between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and I would just like to start, maybe, by asking the Minister if the department has done any work with regard to identifying those gaps that we have here in the North between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children or students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we can start off in terms of how we support our post-secondary students, Indigenous or non, with our Student Financial Assistance program. We have made some improvements and enhancements to those over the years, but really, what it comes down to is starting very young, and we have made some very big investments in early childhood.
We are looking at our educational renewal initiatives from the JK-to-12 system. We are looking at creating new pathways to graduation in the high school system. It takes a combination of all of those investments that will see more success in our Indigenous students and families, right from JK up to grade 12. Then, hopefully, they do graduate, and we can get them into a path that they choose to do, whether it's post-secondary education or getting right into the career workforce.
We want to support our students to succeed right across the Northwest Territories. It is a combination of a lot of investments, Mr. Speaker, and our productive choices with people who are on income assistance as well, but it takes a lot of factors into consideration to ensure that all of our students succeed in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I appreciate the Minister's comments, and we are certainly grateful for a lot of the good work that the department does. Student Financial Assistance is something that is in many ways unique to the North, and we benefit greatly as a society for it.
I just want to go back to the gaps again. One thing that we have to identify is that, clearly, we have statistical information that indicates that Indigenous students are behind as it relates to graduation rates, et cetera, moving forward. I just want to, again, ask the Minister: what kind of work have they done to identify those gaps? What kind of measures or statistics are they keeping so that they can be aware of what work still lies ahead to lessen those gaps?
I think a focus for any jurisdiction is how do we identify gaps and challenges and how do we mitigate them so that we have our students succeeding to completion of either their programs or getting the degrees that they need so that they can be part of the working society. Ways that we do that are through counselling; we are also looking at creating better supports within the post-secondary systems, within Aurora College or within our other post-secondary partners that we work with.
It is always a challenge, and we have got to find unique ways to identify those challenges. I know that the Member for Deh Cho had mentioned some around promoting culture and traditions to help succeeding in those areas. We have got to find a way to make sure that we address those barriers so that our students get to succeed in life, really, and like I said, it is a combination of all of the work that we are doing right now, and it starts with early childhood and the work that we are doing around education renewal to set them up for post-secondary.
I also talked about some of the challenges of parents, and sometimes single parents, who are trying to make their way in post-secondary education. Children are obviously the greatest gift that we have, but, of course, they are an expense. Student Financial Assistance is doing good things to help us afford to go to post-secondary education, but can the Minister let us know: are there any additional resources or financial supports that a single parent or parents could apply for to help with childcare while they are working towards getting a post-secondary diploma or degree?
As Members know, we did make some changes when the Canada Child Benefit came into place, as well as changes to our own legislation for the NWT Child Benefit, to help more low-to-moderate-income families on that area. We have been working with the campuses in Fort Smith, Inuvik, and Yellowknife to address those, and we have heard that as a concern that childcare is important for students who are going to school. We are also working on how to create affordable and accessible childcare in the 11 communities that don't have childcare currently. That poses a barrier in itself, and we have to find ways to address those so that single parents or even families have that opportunity to a healthy education.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for identifying what it is that we are trying to accomplish with regard to helping out with childcare here in the North, but can the Minister describe any resources or supports that a young individual who is taking post-secondary in the South might have access to or additional supports that our government might be able to provide to help them with childcare while going to school in the South? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I encourage any of the students who experience any kind of concerns or issues going down to post-secondary education in the South for the first time to possibly call their client service officer at the Student Financial Assistance office. We also have supports through our Indigenous governments and our partnerships, and we work with them on how to identify some of those barriers and challenges.
I also know that a lot of our Indigenous governments take students who are about to graduate on tours of post-secondary institutions down in the South to give them an idea of how it is going to be when they get down there, but anyone who is having trouble, I encourage them to call their client service officers here at the office and get some assistance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
