Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some comments I would like to make, for the record. I made some comments the other day about the committee report and I would like, in some cases, to expand on those.

The general comments I have concern subjects throughout the act and I also have comments and questions dealing with specific clauses, which I will raise at the appropriate times. In Monday's issue of the Globe and Mail, there was an article called "Clipped Wings Beyond Bandaging," an article about the education system today, and I tabled this article today because there are some quite relevant comments made in it. A question is asked in this article: "How in 20 or 30 years have we gone from having a very good educational system to having a very poor one, a system in which the teachers long for retirement and students long for escape?" The article also states:

"We need to begin again, to re-eroticize learning. Everything needs to be put on the table: the question of core curriculum; school uniforms; sports; alternatives to schools, not just alternative schools; inflated grading; "dumbsizing;" a carnival atmosphere; and, the need for historical perspective and critical thinking. Patching the dike won't work. The leaks now threaten not only the system, spawned-mall bunnies and space cadets, but the vivacious and vigorous who, every day, become a little more enervated and defeated. Without intellectual stimulation and demanding standards for achievement, we will lose more and more of our young to sloth and sluggishness."

I find a lot of these statements very valid and I raise them because we are dealing with an act which is one component -- mind you, probably the most important component -- dealing with our education system. The act will provide the laws and rules which will govern our education system in the north. Another key component of this, which ties into the act, are the regulations. The regulations will provide the detail on how the various provisions of the act will work. However, these are only a few of the components which need to be reviewed. If we put everything on the table, then we have to do that and we have to do it properly.

Many of the aboriginal groups have cautioned us not to proceed too quickly, to make sure that what we're doing is appropriate and fight, to not pass the bill because it is expedient to do so or politically correct to do so, so Members can leave and begin their campaigns. I agree with these people. We have to take our time and we have to ensure that the new bill that we pass will meet the test of time and the needs of our education system.

Everything must be reviewed and evaluated for our system to be revitalized. I hope this bill is only the start and, once the new act comes into force, with the proper regulations developed by northerners, that we continue to examine and change our education system to meet the needs of all our residents. There are many strategies under way, not only with our basic education system from K-12, but our post-secondary institutions are also working on strategies and plans. The sooner that these are finished, the more comprehensive the whole system will be. Just completing a strategy or plan doesn't mean it's over and everything is fixed. It doesn't work that way, but at least it gives us proper guidelines and mechanisms to deal with ongoing changes to our system.

I would like to comment a bit on excellence in education. I was always under the assumption that this Assembly had adopted a principle to strive for excellence in education and to make this work, we should be establishing standards for excellence across the Northwest Territories. All students across the north should receive the same number of instructional hours in school, so that no one, depending where they are, gets short-changed.

We also have to ensure that the quality of our educators and curriculum material are of the highest standards. I have always had a concern about students who come from the smaller communities and go to our regional high schools, and we hear that many of these students aren't ready for the higher grades. Therefore, instead of pursuing academic studies, many students are shuffled into general studies, which are supposed to be easier.

I also believe that many of our community schools do not or cannot provide a full range of course options for students which will give them the basis for achieving academic success in high school. Students have a right to pursue academic studies and they should be encouraged to do so.

Today, our education system seems to focus on statistics and numbers. We always quote that we have so many students in our system. We say that we have so many graduates. But we also have to ask these questions. What are these graduates doing? Where are they going? What is their success ratio in post-secondary institutions? What jobs are they going into? There are many ways of measuring success, but we also have to focus on the quality of the students which we put through our system.

Another concern of mine, which I believe has an impact on striving for excellence in education, is the concept of age appropriate placement of students. I believe this means that students are being automatically advanced to the next grade level because of their age, not because of their academic achievements. I believe that this is the norm across the Northwest Territories. I don't know why. I don't believe this is in the current act and it is definitely not in the new act. So I don't know where that concept has come from and why all the schools seem to follow this so rigidly.

It is almost impossible to achieve excellence in education if we continue this practice where hardly anyone tails. We hear that students are advancing grade by grade and have trouble reading, writing and doing arithmetic. Mr. Chairman, this has to change. Students have to be pushed and encouraged to succeed and there should be mechanisms to measure success. We cannot do this only when students write exams at grade 9 or grade 12 levels. It has to start at grade 1.

Mr. Chairman, my time is up, but I seek consent to continue.