Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not think there is anybody in this Assembly that would say this initiative is a poor one. The fact is we are putting more money into education, which is badly needed. But it is the method of how this is occurring I wish to address. Mr. Speaker, this bill deals strictly with the pupil/teacher ratio. Simply lowering class sizes will not bring about the desired results, which is a quality education.
The fact is this bill alone continues to show how we, as a government, passed and continue to move in a way that is not dealing with the actual problem, but skirting around the issue and putting out fires. We have heard many times that special needs is a large problem for the schools in the Northwest Territories.
Hopefully, these new positions that will be created will be directly targeted to the early grades. As the studies show today, if we are going to have an impact on a child's life, to let them be allowed to be better people in our societies, we are going to have to get to them by the time they are six years old. We should be aiming for that target. If we are going to make a real difference to the education system we know, we are going to have to focus, not just cover a whole area like we are spreading butter on bread. We are going to have to target these expenditures. I hope that is what the department will do with this at the end of the day.
Mr. Speaker, it is the quality of our education system that is in question. Many people will say we have a good system. In the current education system, a system we call now the pure or passing, where you do not need your grade level. They keep you with your age group and move you along so that you are not "damaged". I think those individuals, by the time they become young men and women and realize they do not have the marks of someone in grade nine or ten, it is then they are negatively impacted.
One more thing in the area of quality education. Hopefully, this will be targeted so we can start working at the quality of our system. We have a lot of hard working individuals in our system. I have spent some time around a large number of children in the grade three and four area at one time, helping out with the vacation Bible school in Inuvik. I know the pressure they are under. It is difficult to handle children at that stage. But one of the things that is undeniable in the Northwest Territories is that we could probably find in every community, that teachers are sending their own children to southern institutions for a better quality education. That shows me we are not dealing with the quality issue. We are putting fires out around the problem.
Special needs is driving the fact that we need more assistance in the classrooms. Why are we not dealing with trying to stop the special needs situation from developing in the first place, instead of dealing with the pressures afterwards? We can look at a number of bills throughout this government, Mr. Speaker, and find that we have failed in a lot of areas.
In the days when there was money flowing like milk and honey out of the promised land, we were able to develop a new program over here and develop a new program there. Those days are gone. We are having to struggle with today's society, which has less money to go around, with increasing pressures. I hope that as this goes through committee, they will be able to explain how this money will be targeted to improve the quality of education, not just by reducing the class size, but by truly directing and targeting our younger children. If we are going to make a difference, it is going to be in the early childhood intervention area, in grades kindergarten to three.
How are we going to use this money to get parents involved to teach their children at a young age to pick up the habit of learning? Simply talking about reducing class sizes over the next few years is not going to do that. Simply talking about student support services is not going to fix the problem. We need to do a comprehensive review. They went through a study. They said to do it this way or that way. Well, I think as a government as a whole, we have to look at it. If our own teachers are sending their children south, that tells me there is a problem. Is this going to fix it? I hope at the end of the day, people will start keeping their children in the North to show that we truly do have a good quality system.
Mr. Speaker, I support the fact we are putting more money into education, as this bill proposes to do so. But I still have very grave concerns on how it is going to be worked into the system. Gone are the days when we just laid dollar on top of dollar, a new program here and there, to try and fix things. That does not work. Previous governments have shown this. Hopefully, starting in the new millennium as the 14th Assembly, we are not going to continue on that path. We are going to mark out a new role and set out new guidelines and expect measurable results. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.