Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Can the Minister explain what is known about high school attendance through COVID19? Can he describe the attendance in small communities versus regional centres? What do we know about Indigenous students' attendance? I guess my question is do we have this data, and if not, can he commit to gathering this data? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Attendance data is tracked. The most recent data that we have has been published, and that was for I believe the 20202021, and that is in our JK to 12 performance and measures report. That information states that territorywide, the attendance rate was 79.9 percent. In Yellowknife, 87.23 percent. In regional centres, 76.3 percent. And in small communities, 72.8 percent. However, I will note that attendance can be difficult to take when things are done virtually, and teachers don't necessarily see the students. So like most things, the stats from COVID are not perhaps as accurate as we would like. But I can commit to continuing to collect this information and report it publicly when it becomes available. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. And I know as a past regional board director that the data is all from kindergarten to grade 12, and our kindergarten to grade 6s are excellent at going to school, and then as we get into junior high, it starts to fade off, and we get into senior high, this is where we start to lose our numbers. So I would really like the numbers for that.
But, Minister, can you explain what kind of support is available to the young adult students? The ones that I am walking about are the ones in grade 10, 11, and 12 who are impacted by the COVID19 pandemic to complete their high school education. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And students who are 19 to 21, they can return to high school. I know that a one or twoyear age difference when you're a teenager is a big deal and so it can be difficult for students to return. I mean, a 21yearold doesn't want to sit with 17yearolds, and that's understandable. Some communities have alternative high school programs. Some of these are flexible programs. Perhaps you could attend on the evenings or on weekends, understanding that older students might have jobs that they need to attend to. In Inuvik, there is the Sunchild ELearning Community program as well. And that delivers educational services to Indigenous students. We also have our career and education advisors who are available to help students determine what they need to graduate and move on to the next phase in their life. So there are a number of supports. However, I recognize that there and as I've mentioned before in this House, there is a gap in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, recognizing there are students who haven't completed high school, can the Minister commit to working with his department or with the regional school boards, you know, to identify these students that didn't graduate or identify these students that, you know, maybe just, just passed and may not be eligible to be accepted into some of our universities or our colleges and, you know, support these specific students to complete their high school education, maybe similar to the university and college PREP program but targeted to these students with additional semesters that they may require. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there are currently a few options for people. Students can take upgrading at Aurora College. They can take the adult literacy and basic education program. And so that is it's upscaling programming, and there are no tuition associated with this program. There's also the university and college access program and the occupation and college access program at the college. There are fees associated with this, but they are supported through student financial assistance.
As the Member has stated, and I've also stated, we are aware there is a gap here despite these programs, and the department is looking at ways to bridge that gap. It's not going to happen today, but it is something in the near term we hope to be able to do. In terms of identifying those students, that's something I can bring back to the department and talk about any more nearterm opportunities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. You know, I hear the Minister that I know there is a gap, we know there is a gap; we need to know what the gap is before we can fix it so I'm glad that he's going to be looking into that. But, again, going back to, you know, maybe we have some students that might need a year and a half of university PREP, not just the one year that they could be funded for because I think for funding that's the cap. Is that changed with all the changes made? I can't keep up with some of the great changes that he's made. But are there students that are eligible to get into some of these university college PREP, especially these students that could be a year or two years that they might need to take, and they can get funded through our SFA program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that question deserves a full answer so what I'm going to do is take it on notice, and I'll return to the House with an answer. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
