Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for the comfort of Members, we had this discussion in committee and we understood the concerns that were raised. When we get to clause 126, we will be more specific about responding to the issue of hours. I want to advise the honourable Member, who probably knows the process that existed previously, that the matter of school calendars must be set and must meet standards. A certain number of hours will be translated into days to suit the jurisdiction or, for that matter, the hours.
Based on that, records are kept of instructional time for credit purposes. I think all of us should remain aware that the transferability between our high schools and post-secondary institutions -- universities, specifically -- is based on hours of instruction. In other words, they have to be satisfied with the hours of instruction. So, it's quite clear then, as a result of the number of hours a student spends on a particular course to reach a credit, success in a course is accredited accordingly.
The other point is, we set our elementary time also on hours. For instance: for issues like language of instruction, that would be 210 hours; another language, 90 hours; mathematics, 180 hours; science, 90 hours; social studies, 90 hours; physical education, 90 hours; practical arts, 60 hours; health, 60 hours; and, arts education, 60 hours. That is the basis upon which we make those calculations even now. That's the instruction that we give and the guidelines for time allocations for subjects from grade 1 to 9.
That was why we, Mr. Chairman...I raise the point that the way in which we are trying to amend this legislation could be done but it's the more awkward way of doing it. We could amend it in 126, that was proposing to provide an amendment for that particular purpose to address the concern that, I believe, is important for this Assembly to deal with. We're prepared to do it.