Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak on an issue which affects all educators in the Northwest Territories. The under funding of help for FAE/FAS and special needs children in our education system is, I believe, starting to take its toll on the quality of education that we can offer our children. Mr. Speaker, I have heard in this House, the Minister stating that the needs of these special needs students are being met within regular classroom settings and that ultimately, it is the divisional board that has to decide how to apportion the budget to deal with the needs of these children.
These children have difficulty participating in a regular classroom situation. Mr. Speaker, as you and other Members are no doubt aware, some symptoms affecting special needs students are attention deficit disorder, acting out due to frustration and many other manifestations in forms ranging from mild to extreme. To mainstream these children without the proper resources and classroom assistance means that teachers' time and attention can be dominated by a few students. Another consequence of the teacher having to spend a significant portion of their time in maintaining classroom decorum is that the average students' quality time is lessened and ultimately everyone is being short-changed. The budget-cutting exercise of this government and Assembly that was undertaken passed along these cuts to educational divisional boards. The boards, Mr. Speaker, can no longer afford to hire classroom assistants to work with special needs students.
Mr. Speaker, my impression of the situation is that no one is being properly served by the way in which this deficiency exists and these students are being main streamed in the regular classroom without proper resources. Teachers are burning out from the stresses of trying to ensure that all students are being provided with the core information to succeed in higher grade levels. Average students are not getting the level of instruction and support that a quality education system should provide and special needs' students are not receiving the level of the one-on-one instruction they require to ensure that they learn all that they can. As a government, Mr. Speaker, I strongly believe that we have the responsibility to make sure that we meet the fiscal requirements of the boards of education to deal with special needs' students. We have to make sure that educators have the resources to implement a course of action which provides the most benefit to each child. I strongly urge the government to formulate a territorial-wide action plan to deal with the large numbers and ever growing numbers of special needs' students in our classrooms. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause