Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly there is no disagreement with some of the ideas and comments that Mr. Zoe has brought up. I also recognize that there has been very poor education planning since it started way back when. Most of it has been processed in a system that was introduced, as a carbon copy of other jurisdictions. In fact, a lot of it was imported directly as to how the missionary education program worked through the federal policy.
I suppose that it was a rather rough road when the northerners themselves, especially aboriginal citizens, decided to have culturally-based, or cultural inclusion as a part of the school system. I do not believe though, that has led to illiteracy of adults, people today. It is more like introducing an education system without proper planning and giving the citizens of the aboriginal people direct participation right from the beginning in terms of planning, administration, and curriculum development.
The Adult Education Program and the cultural department, which we will be touching on later, recognizes that it needs a better monitoring system so that we will know what positive impact it has, how much impact it has. Are they learning to read, to write, to tell stories? Are they becoming more literate in terms of oral communication, or in fact, is literacy in reading not necessarily books, but also communicating with their children, etc.?
We have this pride of participating in the literacy projects but we have no real monitoring projects to find out exactly what positive effects it has on the adult population. I think that the government is not denying that there is a very low number of high school graduates who have entered into the education system or school system. That is rather complex. It has a lot to do with both the Education Department, educators, and the society itself.
Maybe some of us expect that we did not have good enough counselling programs in the school when the students are in the grade five or grade six level, and also when they reach grade nine. We presumed that they would, naturally, go to school until they reached grade 12. For some funny reason we have not recognized that the dropout rate was not acceptable to any society, even an educationally-developing society like the N.W.T.
We are now finally in the last ten years trying to tackle that problem of how to manage our education system. Not too much in the curriculum development because that is being initiated by the divisional boards, not so much on teachers' attitudes, but rather to help students who are in the school who may consider different ways of dropping out of school. We have not tackled their individual problems as effectively as we should have done.
We have introduced counselling programs in most of the schools, but is that enough? We are now trying to involve the parents and the society to participate in the school system especially with the encouragement of the students to stay in school, but should we, as a department, also create a system where more help can be given to the students who may be considering, or having a hard time in school.
These are the questions that we will have to address, and we have not yet fully addressed them. I have no disagreement, whatsoever, on the policy on education, or creating a policy on education that reflects the society in the north. Although, it will be a complex type of policy because even in the Northwest Territories, there are different segments of society. Not just in the western Arctic and eastern Arctic, but also in the smaller regions such as Inuvialuit, Sahtu, South Slave and even in the eastern Arctic the different societies of Keewatin, North and South Baffin. So, the policy will have to reflect those societies' attitudes, determinations or objectives. That type of creation of policy, introduction of policy, or development of a policy, will require everyone's input into that. That is why the Department of Education is seeking advice and recommendation from different divisional boards, and the communities.
In terms of special needs, we recognize that we have been using the national average in determining the level of funding. When we had very selective community research work done on that, we immediately found out that the requirements for special needs is much higher than the national average, yet, under these financial restraints, it is very hard to address that. That will require action from the Legislative Assembly.
In terms of bussing, we know that is a problem, but when the bussing policy was introduced, and the criteria for funding in 1988 or 1989, the funding formula was not adequately addressed. We give approximately $1.5 million to divisional boards of the N.W.T. for bussing purposes, but they are still on an ad hoc or needy basis, and this area, too, will have to be reviewed. How we will be able to pay for it is another question. It is very hard to deal with that because bussing is also important, but it is not as critical as other areas of financial requirements of the school system.
In the area of the Teacher Education Program, I think we have been addressing that fairly quickly. We have been going more slowly on this, not so much because there is a lack of aboriginal peoples deciding to become teachers, rather, because there has been a lack of funding in that one. Although we have 25 percent aboriginal teachers now in the N.W.T., we are still committed very much to have 50 percent aboriginal teachers by the year 2000. Certainly, in the next three years that I am allowed to sit in the House, I will work very hard in achieving that, at least beyond 25 percent with a target of 50 percent by the year 2000. That would require a very, very strong decision on the part of the Legislative Assembly in financing it. Also, setting up a system, because not all the regions or divisional board regions, are the same in terms of their requirements. For example, in the eastern Arctic, it was not very hard, because they were already strong in their aboriginal languages. In certain areas, such as the Beaufort Delta, those potential teachers, or the potential students on top, might have lost some of their languages, and may require special training, or at least refreshment courses on their languages, if that is required. So, it will take an imaginative approach to developing a criteria, or system, into the Teacher Education Program.
In terms of the comprehensive strategy that Mr. Zoe is recommending, to form a partnership, or in terms of planning and implementation, to developing a regional workforce in certain areas, and create a labour market in the regions, I am thrilled by this. I would really like to give a welcome to individual groups. In fact, we had a meeting with the Gwich'in Tribal Council last night or yesterday afternoon, it was an intriguing discussion, and as long as we have tea and coffee, we will keep that hot, Mr. Chairman, because we are very much interested in that.
However, in terms of the Northern Leaders' Program that was introduced in the 11th Assembly, we have reviewed this request seriously, and we were very reluctant to remove it.
We have convinced the F.M.B. that there is a need for and, a very, very high demand for student financial assistance in the regular post-secondary or Arctic College. We have approximately, close to, 500 aboriginal post-secondary students and, 610 aboriginal students that we have to finance. The student financial assistance is for 580 non-aboriginal people, so I guess we are saying, is in the real terms, the Northern Leaders' Program is very expensive, and there is a waiting list for other student assistance requirements. We felt that we could enrol two on the student financial assistance for the price of one on the Northern Leaders' Program. So, we are averaging about $20,000 or $18,000 per student on the Student Financial Assistance Program. We tried our best, but under these times of financial restraint, we cannot really afford to have a high cost per student education program. That is why we have been reluctant, but have to take this very difficult decision, to eliminate the Northern Leaders' Program, and increase financial assistance for regular post- secondary students. So, we try to multiply the productivity in that area. There is no disagreement on Mr. Zoe's statements, however, can we afford it? That is the question. Can we afford it in the next two years? The very, very important question, why are there any budget cuts in education, when it is such a high priority? I ask that question too. I think everyone in the Arctic has asked that, but we have no more an exceptional department than anyone else, we are simply a part of a department that was asked to cut back to balance the budget, two years from now.
We abide by it, and we agree with it, in order to look at the bigger picture. We had to make some cuts. Mr. Chairman, I will stop now, because we could have this dialogue going, I have no disagreements with Mr. Zoe's statements. Thank you.