Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is for Minister of education. Can the Minister provide data on how many small community graduates directly enter university as compared to larger regional centres? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I don't have that I have it in my hands but I can't flip through this document and find that information at the moment. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, I did do a written question. I submitted a written question back in December. How many people in the Northwest Territories have a grade 12 education and are on income support assistance program, and the answer was that this is not the answer I was looking for. This data is not tracked by the Department of Education as the input is not a requirement to qualify for the assistance.
So what I'm asking here is that if the education system was good, I don't it's more of a comment. I don't if he wants to answer, but I already asked the question. If we had if the education system was good, we would not have many of these young people walking around in the small communities because we hear from the community leaders and community elders, community are saying why are why do we have all these young people with grade 12 education walking around doing nothing? And I'm sure you heard that too, in your ridings too before, Mr. Speaker. So I'm just asking the Minister that if the education system was good, we would not be having this. And can the Minister provide the number, how many grade 12 graduates that are on income support assistance? We need data so that maybe they can make a good decision in the future to improve the education system, especially for small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't have that. When a client goes to apply for income assistance, we don't ask what their level of education is. And, you know, I think as a government we need to always be mindful of how much information we are requesting. However, I get the Member's point; it would be useful information. I think that we're at a point, though, where we have a good sense of what the education system is like across the territory in communities. We have a lot of data out there, and we just need to start implementing or continue to implement some of these new initiatives to help address the issue because we all know there's issues in education. It's no secret. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
