Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said before, my questions are for the Minister of Education. What is the plan of the department to ensure that we are preserving our languages, especially in my region, the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit languages, before they are gone and we have no one to learn from? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke to this the other day. This is not an easy task. We have to combat 150 years of degradation of Indigenous languages in the territory, and it's tough, especially when the numbers of speakers are dwindling. You know, we have a division within the department that is focusing on this. They are very passionate about it, and they have been making strides to work with Indigenous governments and work within schools by helping to develop curriculum, which we are rolling out across the territory in the next couple of years, and it will be fully implemented. The action plan that is being developed in response to the OAG's report as well as our own internal findings will address these and flesh these out a bit more. We are going to be looking to renegotiate or negotiate a new agreement with the federal government regarding money for languages. However, we can't do this alone. The government can't solve all problems, especially when it comes to something as close to people and as vital to culture as language, so partnerships are going to be key.
More so with my question, I think what I am looking for: is there more of a plan to train language speakers who we currently have so that they can be instructors or teach other people?
As I spoke the other day, the department has some partnerships with the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria, and we are making strides to train people to help revitalize the language. We have a mentorship/apprentice program which pairs fluent speakers with those wishing to learn so that they can then learn.
These are a few of the things that we are doing, and as the Member is well aware, there is work going on within the education authorities, as well. She was a former chair of the Beaufort Delta Education Council, and she knows what vital role they play, as well. I know that each of the education authorities is doing work, as well, in addition to the things that the department is doing, and we like supporting that, as well.
I am going to go on to a different topic within the same Member's statement. What is the plan to ensure that our students are getting the education and support that they need to move to the next grade on track, so that, by the time they do reach grade 10, we are not losing them to dropout, and then we see the high unemployment rates because they are not eligible to get jobs and stuff?
When the Premier asked newly elected Ministers what portfolios they would want and why, one of the things that I said when I said I would like Education is that one of my goals is to eliminate the need for social passing for inclusive schooling, because all of our students would be on track right from junior kindergarten.
Some of the things that the department has already done are things like junior kindergarten, which will begin showing results. We are going to see that. There is a group of kids out there who have access to more quality education earlier, and that is going to pay big dividends going forward. We have things like the child and youth care counsellors, which are rolling out across the territory, to help students with issues that hinder their ability to learn. We have a territorial support team, which teachers and administrators can reach out to so that they can get help with things like mental health. We have an educational psychologist, an occupational therapist, behavioural specialist, a speech-language pathologist all on staff to help teachers work with students to address some of their needs.
Clearly, more needs to be done, and I am willing to look at different ways of proceeding with this. Inclusive schooling social passing is controversial, but the other option is that students don't get placed in the next grade. They just get held back, and the consequence of that is higher dropout rates. We want to find that ground where we are not losing students to dropout, but we are adequately preparing them. We are working on it. I look forward to getting into more detail as we go forward, as we develop this action plan, but I am committed to providing more supports.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one last question: how do we ensure that the data that is being collected in each education board, because they are different and they are governed differently, is being analyzed so that we are getting the same information across the board, so that, when we do sit here as a government, we are able to deal with those concerns? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We have a framework. The name is escaping me right now, but it deals directly with this. It deals directly with data collection and how that data is processed. We have standardized the way that we are now collecting this data from the education councils. My colleague is right; there is a separation between all of the education authorities, and separated from ECE, as well.
I think that one of the things that we need to do, and this was mentioned in the Commissioner's address, is look at our Education Act and see if there is a way to better integrate our systems. Not to get rid of the regional authorities, but to facilitate that type of information-sharing and collection that we need in order to be able to analyze what we are doing and ensure that what we are doing is generating results. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
