Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members are making references to many areas that are of concern and I would like to do so as well, then I would like to make some comments about what needs to happen after education because education is also related in a sense to where people get jobs afterwards and where is the motivation to get your education, in other words. We have to be able to identify jobs, but first let me speak about a couple of areas that I have been able to garner as areas of concern to what I believe are concerns of the teachers and the education profession.

First of all, dealing with the dollar aspect of education, I think it is important to point out the budget for education has not been decreased. What is happening is there is a forced growth factor developing. We are getting more students into the education system. That is, of course, placing pressure on the system.

One of the areas, I have been told is a big concern in the education area, is the student support services. While statements have been made that class sizes are too big and classes have too many students in them, the reality of the situation, I think more appropriately is, students are not getting the support service in classes. The classes are more diverse and multi-grade classes. There are more special needs in each classroom. Yet there is not anymore support for those special needs, those special needs students. As a result, there are fewer resources to go around. Some resources but fewer of them. For example, there is a lack of teacher-counsellors, teacher's aide in language acquisition when in comes to English as a second language and there is lack of learning assistants for teachers.

I think another important aspect of our education system is the whole area of vocational training. We place a great deal of emphasis on academic subjects, but, to my understanding, there is not that much vocational training happening in any of the schools in the territories, up to grade 12. That, to me, is perhaps a critical area to be examined simply because not all students are going to end up moving onto a university. After all, a grade 12 education is just a general education, it does not prepare you for a job. That seems to me to be an area we do need to concentrate on, to say where are we going with our curriculum and is it adequate to prepare people for jobs later on.

I am just going to make reference to some areas that have been brought to my attention on several subjects. Teacher turnover. I am probably repeating things that other Members have already said and the department is well aware of, but I think it is worthy to make reference to them. Teacher turnover, there is a concern there apparently, because there has been an erosion of pay and benefits. More important, what I understand, it is the high housing costs and the difficulty facing teachers to get housing. That is an area of concern. Class sizes and structures. I have already mentioned in some cases the student/teacher ratio is of less concern than the lack of adequate support staff to assist students with special needs.

Funding is of concern. It can be identified very specifically. I was told, for example, there is an allocation of $24 for text books, yet one particular text book cost $25, so the teacher could not even buy that. Teachers are photocopying material rather than being able to buy text books. I give that as an example because I think it is important to get it on the record of what I have heard.

Dealing with curriculums and outcomes and assessments, parent groups have lobbied for renewed emphasis on basic skills, teacher centred instruction and stricter evaluation methods. Some jurisdictions are moving away from the recent practice of moving children from grade to grade with their peers regardless of achievement level. Now, I did address this through questions last year. I think there is some concern out there about students staying with their peers, regardless of their achievement. Hence they can graduate from high school, yet they may not be able to achieve the level of a grade 9 or 10, but for all intentions and purposes they can state they graduated from high school. I think that needs to be addressed, perhaps re-evaluated.

The provincial assessment programs are available in nine provinces now where high school exit exams are required. The NWT have scored below average in the areas such as math, science, reading and writing in the school achievement indicator's program. That is of concern, Mr. Chairman.

Now, school to work transition. We do not seem to have many programs in place that allow students to learn what the work world is like out there. I think there are some programs, for instance the principal of St. Pat's, here in Yellowknife has been working on a program. It is to give students work experience. He is working with businesses around the community. I think those kinds of programs are to be lauded. These schools also need support for this particular kind of service.

I am told the most basic adult education programs in the NWT do not have stable funding. Only 35 communities have permanent adult educators.

Just on the special needs students. I have a statistic here that says the department estimates that about 30 to 45 percent of NWT students need specific supports to help them learn above what is provided as part of regular teaching practice. The incidents are probably higher in some communities. That is sort of a lot of information, Mr. Chairman.

I want to come back now to our need to be able to say, yes, Members are speaking in support of more funding for education. I do not disagree with that. We also need to address and identify job opportunities. We have to look at this on a statistical basis and say, okay, where are the jobs going to be in the future and address that in our curriculum and in our schools so that students get some incentive to be able to go and finish school. Right now, I think a lot of students are probably in there, they do not know where they are going to end up with a job, if they are going to stay in the Northwest Territories. It becomes a question of giving them some motivation to carry on in school and that is an important element. I will leave my remarks at that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.