Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, over the last couple of days we have come together to convince the government that there is definitely a need to increase funding levels for our education system. Before I get to concerns that have been raised before me regarding that, I would like to mention that today's education is better than it has been in recent memory.
Today, Madam Chairperson, we have more students young and old attending all forms of education. Our community leaders continue to stress education and our young people are responding. In my region we have experienced almost an explosion in an interest for education. Many things, of course, have spearheaded this move. Bringing high school levels to the region was probably the biggest motivator.
This one initiative has brought young people back to school that wanted good education, but they did not want to leave the community. Recently, factors have come into play which are also important for the development of interest in education. The opportunity young people are seeing with developments such as BHP and other mining companies and land claims settlements are close at hand, a constant emphasis that our leaders are providing. All healthy youth realize they need to be educated.
In the fall of 1992, there were two Dogrib students attending post-secondary schooling, one in the north and one in the south. In the fall of 1997 there were 48 Dogrib students attending post-secondary schooling; 27 in the south, over 25 of these plan to go back again next year, others have completed their courses. We have students in the business of law, nursing, science, social work, renewable resources, teaching and mining, to mention just a few areas of concern. Over 20, are working on degrees, not particularly on diplomas. This is exciting for Dogribs, as well as for the future. As you can see, the youth are getting the message. They are going back to further education.
This coming Saturday, I will be attending the Chief Jimmy Bruneau High School graduation, and will witness 11 youths walk down the pathways to the rest of their lives. We also hope that these students will follow the footsteps of previous grads by going on to post-secondary school education, so that they can come back and help our residents in the future.
Over the past years, while trying to meet the GNWT's mandate toward block funding, the department has moved toward a formula based entirely on student enrolment. This works for many things, such as operations and maintenance, but is very unfair toward smaller schools. While the formula allows a base for administration for small school boards, it does not allow a base for small schools. If a school board loses ten students, this could mean two families leaving schools for elsewhere, the school loses janitorial time, secretarial time, school community councils time, bus funding as well as teachers and classroom assistants and staffing. School facilities have not become smaller. A janitor still has to clean the same space. The principal is teaching, so that it is important to have secretarial assistance in the office during the day. The buses still have to run. This can mean a loss of approximately $80,000 total of the board's budget. For larger schools, this would not be as big a problem as for smaller schools, with a little leeway in their prospective budgets.
We also see grade extensions offered in the schools, which is what we want. However, at the same time with a slight fluctuation in the number of students, schools could lose five teachers, which means that there is one teacher teaching all subjects from grade 10 to 11 students.
I can say that education is showing some good results. However, as good as these results are by not increasing the budget, it could possibly revert to an understaffed, overworked boards that just want out.
We have all talked about the need for adequate and affordable housing for our education staff and the need for increased budgets to ensure our future generations receive good education. These are very important concerns. Now, I understand, to add more weight to the arguments to increase the budgets to have the budgets we have, this Ardicom high speed communication system will allow schools to offer many of the new and exciting tools to be used. Again, the problem is, how can smaller schools be expected to pay for this service when they can barely keep the schools going now?
In closing, I would like to say education is a high priority for myself and my region. I am sure my colleagues must ensure these concerns are addressed. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.