Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's -- well, it's been back to school for a bit for parents in the Northwest Territories. As one of them, I'm always keen to help support students in their education journey and working families as well. One of the biggest things that's happening in our school districts is the change to the BC curriculum. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment speak to the progress of the implementation of the new curriculum in NWT schools? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are in our second year of implementing the new curriculum into our school system. We are working on a phased-in approach. It is a five-year phased-in approach, and that is because we recognize that there is significant amount of work to be done, and we want to ensure that we are affording the proper time to do it in a -- you know, a very progressive way, where people can learn about the curriculum and then implement it with students and have resources to be able to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how much money has the department put aside to help transition schools over this five-year period? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the question is how much money is going specific to -- or specifically to education bodies for the task of implementing the new curriculum, the answer to that question is there is no funding allotment specifically for this. The reason being is that the education bodies are already funded for curriculum coordinators within schools and support coordinators, and they're also already funded within the school funding formula for evergreening material as well within our school systems. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I find that alarming. I know the Minister and I were at the same meeting but for one district in Yellowknife, the cost of implementation is around $600,000, and if it's not coming from the -- it's coming from resources that should be going to just support the schools and support our children in those schools. Will the Minister reconsider this approach and fully fund the transition that the government has mandated on school districts? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I sit at the same meetings as the Member, and I'm always keen to have conversations with our education body. I have a meeting tomorrow with the NWTTA, and this is one of the conversations that is on our agenda as well.
Within the request for new resources or new funding allocations, the department works closely with the Government of BC to determine what types of new resources would be required, and one of the things that was learned in that conversation is there is no expectation of additional resources because there is already the bodies within the school systems that support teachers to administer curriculum. What we're doing is we're switching that curriculum. We do have training provided to teachers. We have online platforms. We have online platforms that we share now with teachers from British Columbia where we can share lesson plans and also training for how to implement this new curriculum.
In addition to that, teachers are supposed to still be able to use their previous education material. So there might be a desire to bring on new material, absolutely, but that is why that funding exists, but there is not a need to completely kind of throw every piece of material or book that was used previously in order to really move into the BC curriculum. So that's why there's not a large chunk of money to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary, Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's true that you don't need to replace every book but we're talking about software licenses, professional development, and the costs that have been communicated with me and with other Members of this House are clear, there is a cost to this. It is not being able to be dealt with by coordinators in the schools, and when we download the costs on to parents, on to teachers, it means more improvement days, more professional development days, and less instructional time. So will the Minister work with school boards to provide additional funding -- maybe it's not the full amount, but additional funding to help cushion the impact of the extra costs of the curriculum change and ensure that we have as much -- and protect instructional time for our kids? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, there are no additional PD days being allotted. One of the agreements that was made -- or STIP days. One of the agreements that was made with education bodies was to allot time from their existing professional development days and dedicate it towards the implementation. So while I absolutely hear the Member, I do want to share that some education bodies have come forward and have said that, you know, this is how they are implementing the new curriculum, these are some of their success stories, these are how they're participating in that work. So this is not a sentiment that is shared among all education bodies. But I definitely want to ensure that I am hearing the details from each education body and that we are having conversations about this and are ensuring that at the end of the day, teachers are supported to teach our kids. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
