Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Education, Culture And Employment

Focus On Excellence

During its review of the 1994-95 main estimates, the committee recommended that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment adopt a focus on excellence as the fundamental principle of the educational system. The department was also requested to implement a plan, by the 1994-95 school year, to monitor the achievement of northern students and to continually strive to help northern students achieve excellence in their studies.

The committee did not receive a response to this recommendation prior to the commencement of the 1994-95 school year. However, on September 13, 1994, the following information was provided to the committee:

"The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is committed to excellence in education. The department will continue to build on work already being undertaken in the NWT and other jurisdictions and will assume new initiatives, such as numeracy and literacy. Taking into account available human and fiscal resources, the department will plan for incremental development and implementation of the recommended indicators."

When the Minister appeared before the committee, he outlined a number of areas that he felt demonstrated the department's commitment to excellence. For example, the Minister pointed to some specific developments in the curriculum such as Dene Kede.

In other areas, such as developing a comprehensive system of evaluation, he pointed out the difficulties and indicated that an appropriate response would require more time to develop. The committee strongly supports standardized testing and urges the department to implement a testing system as soon as possible. Committee Members look forward to reviewing plans regarding any future involvement of the Northwest Territories in nation-wide standardized testing.

Finally, the Minister noted that the department would be releasing a strategy by about mid-October. He said that the strategy would articulate the vision for education for the next 15 years. From there, he indicated, they could get on with the work of either moulding, changing, or getting rid of some of the department's existing programs.

I'd now like to turn the reading of this report over to Mr. Zoe, Madam Speaker.