Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the government has recently announced their intention to earmark $2 million a year for the next three years towards better educating our population. The purpose of the Literacy Strategy will hopefully go a long way towards making our residents better able to read and write, thereby making them more productive citizens. I cannot agree more, Mr. Speaker, with the importance of increasing literacy rates.
I have a concern though that our educators are having more and more burdens placed on them. In addition to class sizes and resources, they are encountering negative attitudes and disrespect in the classroom. This has escalated to the point where many of our teachers are going on stress leave, more and more teachers are looking at early retirement or retirement packages.
Another area, Mr. Speaker, is kids not attending class. It is a pretty sad day when restaurants have to put up signs that they will not serve kids during school hours simply because many of the kids are getting out of school.
I was wondering if the Minister could advise the House as to what the department is doing for long-term solutions towards eradicating some of the inherent stress placed upon our educators? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.