Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question for the Minister of Education.
Can the Minister tell me what actions are being taken to address recommendation number 5 of the Standing Committee Report Number 15 of June 2021? What has ECE done to support the schools in small communities?
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've been planning to make plans, and then we've been implementing those plans. I can say that much for sure.
It is clear that we need to support small schools and the students in those schools, and that's why prior to the OAG releasing their report, we've been taking steps to better support students in small schools.
One of the biggest things is junior kindergarten. You know, that's a few years old now, but that is the age where intervention has the greatest effect. And so we've implemented that and we spend millions of dollars each year on that.
Northern distance learning is a way to bring some more experienced teachers essentially into communities, virtually, to give students access to those teachers. Often in small communities, teachers are fresh out of school. They don't have a lot of experience, and they might not even stay in the community for very long. And so bringing some of those more seasoned instructors in is a way to help those students and give them some advantages. We have a territorial based support team that works with all of the different school boards and gives small schools access to some of the resources that you would generally only find in larger centres.
We have the career and education advisors that we've recently moved out into the regions so that they are closer to the small communities. And now with an end to the public health order and the restrictions, they will be travelling directly into communities to work with students.
As the Member mentioned, some of the plans going forward, as well, that have been delayed because of COVID, but there's a number of different things that we're doing to work with small communities. Thank you.
Thank you. ECE committed to several actions. Can the Minister give an update? For example, I have six example but I will do two for now.
Has a team been established that can travel to small schools and provide ongoing wraparound support and training throughout the school year, and is it already travelling are they. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure if that's the team that would support principals and teachers in small communities. If that's the case, that has been delayed. But we are working on that one. Thank you.
Okay. So what is the progress on piloting training and support for small school principals and teachers of multigrade classroom plan for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the work is going on to create those supports so that we can go into the communities and support the teachers. So I hate to say to the Member but we are making those plans. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
What impacts will the partnering with BC for the NWT JK to 12 curriculum have on commitment made following the auditor general's report? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So curriculum needs to be updated, you know, every once in a while, and it's been quite a while since our current curriculum was updated. Updated curriculum is generally better at, you know, teaching students, giving them the skills they need. My hope with the BC curriculum and how we can integrate northern culture directly into the curriculum, not as some sort of an add on but into the curriculum, my hope is that that will engage students more in school, make them want to go.
One of the biggest problems we have is that the attendance rates, especially in small communities, are quite low. And there's a number of reasons for that. The Member earlier spoke about the need for a wholeofgovernment approach essentially to change education outcomes. If a student isn't going to school, it might have nothing to do with the school. It might be that they didn't get any sleep that night because they're in a home that, you know, is too crowded and there was a lot of noise and then they couldn't sleep.
You know, there's a number of different issues that we need to address. And so curriculum is one aspect of it. But I am working with my colleagues to address some of those other issues as well in hopes that, you know, we can really make some fundamental changes because for too long, we've seen this disparity between small communities and larger centres and, you know, we are very committed to working on it and implementing changes so that we address some of those issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
