Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few concerns in addition to what has been indicated in the Social Program Committee's report, of which I am a Member. A lot of this will be related to the Minister's opening comments. The first area is in the pupil/teacher ratio which I understand is close to the top, the highest ratio in the country. I have talked to some people and one of their concerns is that the pupil/teacher ratio is not really a true indication of how many students are actually in the classroom in relation to the teacher, because I believe that includes the janitor, the principal, et cetera. In many cases, the principal does not actually teach or if they do, it may be a limited amount of teaching. It is time to look at a system where there is a true indication of a pupil/teacher ratio, so that people actually know how many students are supposed to be allowed in those classrooms in relation to the teachers.

Another concern I have is the inclusive schooling, I believe it is called, where everybody is allowed to progress in classes and it does not matter what type of learning problem or disability they may have. It seems everybody is included in the same classrooms. I know that Mr. Picco had gone to a conference last year in Washington. I just happened to notice his well-written report that he provided to the Members. At that conference, the general consensus, as I recall, was that educators themselves were against this particular model of teaching. Primarily because while it is a laudable cause, Mr. Chairman, something to work and strive toward, unless you have adequate resources, unless you have more than one teacher in the classroom, it is very difficult to achieve your goal.

In some instances, a Grade 8 teacher may be working with students right from Grade 1 to Grade 8. How is one teacher supposed to work properly with all those students? It is very difficult. It is almost like you have a one-room school in every class. Unless we are able to pour a lot more money into this type of system, perhaps it is time that we went back to the system where people do not actually progress unless their exams or learning has warranted that they should progress. I do not think it is fair to any child to actually get up to Grade 9 and all of a sudden, they find out that they are only reading and doing math or whatever, at a Grade 3 level. What good is that? Sure the kid has stayed in school, but certainly it did not do them any good educationally. I should not say any good, but I hope you get my concern.

The other thing that I wanted to comment on was this graduation rate of 27 percent. Mr. Chairman, the constituency I represent includes the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. I believe their graduation rate is somewhere around zero percent. Nobody to whom I have spoken to last year knew of a Yellowknives Dene First Nation member who graduated from high school last year. This has to be alleviated somehow.

I was also in discussion of extension of high school programs, keeping kids in school and all that. This will not occur for the Yellowknives Dene unless they have their own school. Because unless they have their own school, they are still going to continue sending their kids to the schools in Yellowknife. Their position will remain exactly the same. They will not have cultural-based schooling. They will not have any say whatsoever over the curriculum, over the days in school, when they have holidays, when they have professional development, anything like that. They do have a small school in Detah, but even that, Mr. Chairman, is under the auspices of the Dogrib super board that they have put together over there now. It was bad enough when they were part of their education divisional board, but now that they are part of an overall superstructure that includes health and social services and education and what not, then they are just one little dot on the landscape there. They have very little input on how their education works.

Mr. Chairman, the other thing I wanted to comment on was the Human Resource Planning and Development Strategy for the west. I am glad to see that this is occurring. The other area is the college and university transfer agreements with the southern institutions. Mr. Chairman, it is fine to have these agreements, but unless the instructors at our college ensure that all the course materials are followed, and ensure that the exams that are done, hit the right question areas, students who complete those courses will not be transferred. I know that first-hand, because I know two students who this occurred to. Courses that are supposed to be transferred to a university could not transfer because not enough course material was followed. I think the exams were also like that. I talked to an instructor there and he was quite concerned about it as well.

In the area of the university college entrance program, yes, we do get money from Indian Affairs for allowances. Mr. Chairman, this alone is not enough. We have to ensure there is actually a program out there that to prepare the students for university and college. They have to learn how to do research, how to study and how to write papers. Just merely throwing them into a regular upgrading class is not good enough.

The final area I wanted to address was the Aurora Campus in Yellowknife. I recently attended the opening of the new campus building. I would like to congratulate the department on finally consolidating the programs that the campus has been offering for many years, in eight or nine different buildings throughout Yellowknife, Mr. Chairman, including above a bar, which I do not think was very conducive to learning.

The one area of concern I have here yet is, of course, whether or not Yellowknife has been recognized as an official campus. The Aurora Campus was operating for many years without being officially recognized. I would like to know if this has changed. Is the Aurora Campus now recognized as an official campus and if not, why not? When will it occur? Thank you.