Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, last spring, one of the problems that I have been having is with regard to students repeating their grades. I have been looking at the N.W.T. average of students from K to nine, in that as the grades increase, as well as the number of students not promoted. It goes from 1985 to 1990, it seems that the students promoted and the students not promoted has not changed dramatically. The average is still the same. In Fort Providence, for example, in 1987, the kindergarten class was the only one that did not have any students that failed. However, in 1990-91, two students from the kindergarten class failed and one of them happens to be my son.
Mr. Chairman, he has failed again this year. The reason he failed this year is that he has not progressed enough to be advanced. What I am hearing is that in his second term, in kindergarten, this child did worse than he had done in the first year. How can that be possible? That is how I am reading it.
During the first year he was in school, the teacher advised us that he was not going to be promoted to first grade because she felt he may be given a harder time by older students or bigger students in the grade one class.
By repeating, he would be the bigger student in the kindergarten class. Having him repeat his grade for the third year in a row has made him the oldest and biggest student in the kindergarten class. I do not know where the problem lies and all that I intend to do is to have my son take, or be assessed by a psychologist to determine whether or not he does have a disability, dyslexia, a person that sees things backwards, numbers and letters backwards, or whether or not he has a hearing problem, or a vision problem.
I cannot believe that this normal child, in my opinion, has to repeat his grade for the third year in a row. In the event that, Mr. Chairman, there is absolutely nothing wrong, then I really have to question the methods in which students are graded, or the qualifications of those teachers teaching in those schools. The reason why I am saying this, I was told to visit the Principal and to talk to him, but what is the purpose of discussing it with the Principal, I am not too sure. I hope the qualification of those teachers is what I am basing most of the decisions that are made. I do not question their decision, it is on the basis of their advice, but when it comes to a student repeating his grade three years in a row, I really find that quite strange.
The other thing, Mr. Chairman, is that in the definition of objectives by the department, one of the things that it says here, is to participate in the national school achievement indicators program. Mr. Chairman, in my Member's statement back in the spring, I was really quite excited that they were going to have some kind of a national test that every student would be able to take. Based on those tests, we can say that, taken in kindergarten, the Northwest Territories stands at the national level, maybe second or third or maybe second or third below, it does not matter. I would like to know what the national indicators are because as far as the testing of the students go, Mr. Chairman, I find that what I go from the school in Fort Providence is that they have a check list and they check these lists off, to gauge the progress of your child, is that what they use, the terminology that they use. I do not know what that means, if he has got good attitude, it is a check, if he has got a bad attitude, he does not have a check. I do not know. I find that when I was going to school, Mr. Chairman, we used to have a test every week, a spelling test, a math test, and everybody stands, you make a mistake and you sit down. That kind of a thing, but it was fun. I enjoyed it, but I also knew where I was, whether I was the first to sit down or not.
---Laughter
I still knew where I stood within that group of students. If it meant that I should try better or to study harder, I was able to do that. However, I do not know what the testing methods are in the schools and I have asked on a number of occasions to the former Minister of Education about what they do in the schools to determine their grade level.
All the Minister has been able to do is give me averages of students promoted and students not promoted. He gave me the territorial average as well as the Elizabeth Ward average but he has not answered the question as to whether or not at the end of each school year, there is a test that is given to the student. I do not know that. I know that some of the teachers are saying that some students are operating at lower levels, even though they have been advanced, I am really curious about this. We have students in grade eight, but we also have students that are equivalent to grade three in grade eight. I do not know what is going on. In some cases, a student could be the worst student, but they are being advanced. In some other cases, students who maybe do not deserve to be advanced are not advanced, or deserved to be advanced are not advanced.
I do not know, there is a double standard. I see it quite clearly. I do not know, maybe, being the son of a M.L.A. might have something to do with it. I still am very interested, Mr. Chairman, in finding out whether or not we have weekly examines, weekly tests, monthly examines, or every three months there is an examine. I want to know because I believe that most of the promotion or the advancement of students, the determining factor is not really whether or not they are smart or they have academic achievement, but rather is determined by whether or not the qualified teacher feels that the student should advance or not. I am really curious. I want that answer.