Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement earlier today, social passing is a huge issue in my riding. Many parents would like to see their children having more homework, more projects that they have to do and trying harder. Right now it seems that their children don’t have to try and yet they’re put up one grade higher every year even though they’re not at that level.
So, I’d like to ask the Minister, why did the department move towards social passing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the process is that we have heard over and over from the parents, the grandparents and the educators that we need to have those individuals along with their peers. At the same time, we are currently working with the parents. We have to deal with attendance and various areas of improvements within our educational system. We are doing what we can as a department. We need to reach out to the parents. If students aren’t attending schools, they fall behind. When they fall behind, they fall behind in the curriculum, the areas of study and way behind in their homework as well.
This is an area where we want to improve through our Educational Renewal and Innovation. We are doing what we can to improve in those areas, along with working with the district education councils and district education authorities because we need their support as well. Mahsi.
Just thinking back, you know, one of the reasons I believe that social passing was brought into play here was because of our graduation rates. In the past our graduation rates were much lower. This is no reason to have social passing in our education.
When will the department review and revise the Education Act to deal with social passing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are doing a three-year action plan on education renewal. Part of that process will capture attendance and the challenge we are faced with. The peer passing has been brought to our attention on numerous occasions and how we can deal with the matter. There are mixed feelings about that particular subject. It depends on who you talk to. We need to have all the stakeholders have a discussion on the best approach to deal with this particular matter. This is part of the discussion we are currently having as part of the action plan on ERI. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
