Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, we do need certain criteria in order to address infrastructure needs and we have to apply that across the board. If there is an opportunity from time to time to use that facility for other purposes and there is a requirement to replace that particular facility, then we could look at that.

I have to take into account though the capital planning process that we all have to adhere to and this whole Assembly has to, naturally, agree with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The test scores for the Alberta achievement test, only two jurisdictions participated in that particular testing process, which was last spring, I believe. While there were certain areas that were lower, and I have to go by recollection here, Mr. Speaker, there were some areas where the Yellowknife No. 1 board was fairly equal to Alberta on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has stated in the House in October of 2001 that the test results of the South Slave District Education Council and the YK Education District 1 caused the Minister and the department some concern.

Would the Minister please state what action the department has taken in this regard since October of 2001? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has produced a student assessment, evaluation and reporting directive, which provides guidelines for responsibilities of jurisdictions: the schools, the district education authorities, and the department. That takes into account areas like testing to ensure that testing is done, examinations are followed with the Alberta system and that we participate in the national testing processes, like the student achievement indicators report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I read an interesting report from the YK Education District No. 1 entitled "What Affects Students' Achievement Forum," held in February of 2000. One aspect that was outlined was the need to continue to stress smaller class sizes. Would the Minister please indicate what current pupil-teacher ratios are in the South Slave education district now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have the South Slave PTR here. I know that it is in the likelihood of 17:1, if not lower, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago in the House, the Finance Minister unveiled his new budget. There was a substantial increase in the education funding outlined in the budget. Would the Minister please state whether any of this increase in funding will be applied to reduce class sizes in order to address the problem of low test scores amongst students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there is an additional $2.7 million, I believe, being added to the education system. The money that will be spent on that, Mr. Speaker, is in the student needs area. The present PTR across the Territory is at 16.5. We have one more year to go in funding in the agreement and by legislation, and that will bring it down to 16:1, Mr. Speaker, bringing it down another half a point. That will result in reduced class sizes. Class sizes have been reduced by approximately 5 percent since we introduced this particular program of funding, Mr. Speaker. It results in more teachers in the classrooms, which in turn results in smaller class sizes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot in the news about jobs, jobs, jobs. All the jobs are out there and they are there for the taking. However, Mr. Speaker, I am talking about the quality of jobs that are out there, so people can receive the job they want, knowing they will get paid for that job.

Mr. Speaker, smaller communities have the lowest level of university degrees in the Northwest Territories and the highest level of people with less than a grade 9 education. Mr. Speaker, in most communities, 30 percent of the students have less than a grade 9 education, and only 5 percent of our students have a university degree. Mr. Speaker, those statistics alone compared with Yellowknife, where 5 percent have less than a grade 9 education and 20 percent of the people have university degrees.

I would like to ask the Minister what is he doing to ensure that our students going to our schools in the Northwest Territories are receiving a quality education, so they can take advantage of the economic opportunities and the meaningful jobs out there? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the success of students is an important issue. We need to especially address the smaller communities. We have been attempting to do that over the last several years, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, teacher turnover has been an issue. Mr. Speaker, we have introduced a Teacher Induction Program, so we have some stability and look at providing more stability of teachers in the communities. The Teacher Induction Program is being welcomed and other jurisdictions are looking at our particular program.

As well, we are looking at the possibility of increasing and continuing to promote northern teachers to be trained, so we have teachers from the North in the communities, Mr. Speaker, who have a cultural appreciation and identity. Thank you.