A very short one. Mr. Gargan is talking about two things. School achievement indicator program and school inclusive program. On the first one he was talking about, perhaps it is not a general comment. It is a rather private and specific one, I would invite Mr. Gargan to step outside.
---Laughter
He should meet with me privately and we could deal with that particular issue, I know what he is talking about and I do not want to respond to it here because it is specific to him.
As far as the inclusive schooling, there are grade three students, or grade five students with grade eight students in the small class, because they are the same age group, going to school with their peers. They are not necessarily being demoted or anything like that. They are in grade three and they will be in grade three for that year until they pass, but it is this all inclusive schooling policy has been developed that the older kids are not going to school in the same grade six students of a much younger students, this is a matter of respecting their age group.
As far as the school achievement indicator program, I think, I should tell you a little background on this one. In the spring of 1989, the Council of Ministers of Education Canada undertook the development of the program designed to collect information that will help jurisdictions determine how effective their education systems are. Two types of indicators of school effectiveness are being developed. These first will show the involvement of young people in the education system as reflected in the participation, retention and graduation rates.
The second group of indicators will provide information about the achievement of the students at the age of 13, and 16, in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. So, what it simply means is this, with this indicator program we will find out where our students are, some of the selected students are. That will hopefully show us generally as to what the Department of Education is failing, or not doing enough, and where it can improve itself. Is the curriculum too hard? Is it too easy? Is it not making the student achieving the level of quality of education that is required by government policy, or the education policy? This is to help the department formulate what we can improve on in education.