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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I should state that we would be glad to do the research on that particular question, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure that other jurisdictions might have the kind of comprehensive information that we have. A student needs survey was done, Mr. Speaker, two years ago, which provided us with a great deal of information on student needs. From that, we developed the student needs implementation of how to address the issues facing our students. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am certain the Minister would agree that we probably face bigger challenges in our classrooms in the North than are found in the south. In spite of whether or not he has the figures, will he commit now to champion for the next budget further increased funding for student support services?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the Member stating this, because it was certainly my hope to be able to, once the MOU that had been signed and what we had put into legislation, that we could carry on with that.

I am certainly there to ensure I do what I can to carry forward with the program of the PTR and the students needs requirements. That is a very important element for the success of our school system, if we could continue to bring down the PTR. Ms. Lee spoke about the class sizes. It is having an effect on class sizes. The issue of student needs is also a very important element for us to have success.

There are challenges in our school system that we have to address and a lot of it does depend upon the amount of resources that we can put into that whole area. I think we are making a good dent into it, but we have to continue that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no question, Mr. Speaker, that it takes educators, it takes a community and it takes parents' involvement and parental support in the system to get success for students. When we can provide students with a home situation where there is support, and it does not necessarily need to be doing homework, but it just requires a good home situation, support and encouragement. That does make a difference. There is no doubt. That has been proven time and time again. Similarly with community support. Wherever we can, we need to ensure that communities provide the support as well as, of course, the school itself. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A very important area, Mr. Speaker, and the department did a student needs survey two years ago, as I mentioned earlier. There were a number of elements in that report that contributed to the success of students. It was school counselling, et cetera, but one of the areas was parental support and parental assistance. They identified this as an issue. The department is in the process of designing workshops that would involve parents more in programs. One that has been designed is called Nobody's Perfect. It is a situation to allow parents to become more familiar with the school, bring them into the school and become comfortable with the school system. There needs to be a partnership between the parents, the school and the students.

Additionally, we have worked on the Early Childhood Development Plan, whereby we are working with parents to come in with children when they are very young, into areas like language nests and into resource centres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Early Childhood Development Plan is allowing us to focus on the need that Mr. Nitah spoke about. Certainly we see that as an area that can help.

We are also teaching, just by way of reference, a course on residential schools to grade 4. We have piloted that in Fort Providence. Issues like that we are bringing more and more into the schools so parents start to identify and start to become comfortable.

Mr. Nitah's concern about having materials and kits available for parents is a very good point. I believe we do some in a limited way now to try to make people and parents familiar, but certainly a good issue that we should follow up on. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question has been asked before, am I willing to continue to champion the need for funding for special needs? I think there is a need for championing and continuing that role, which I feel I have played for the last two years, hopefully fairly well.

In order to continue to improve the resources available to schools and school systems and put it into a permanent place and continue to improve, I think it is okay to introduce programs. It is important to start them, get them going but then start to refine these programs. Like our student needs assistants in the classrooms, we need to move forward again with that. We have introduced it and we need to move on and refine it and improve it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for Education. As I indicated earlier, I do not believe the Department of Education is solely responsible for student performance, but I do believe they should be accountable. For some time now, I think our students' marks going into Alberta exams have been higher than when they come out of the Alberta exams. I would like to ask the Minister if we are able to determine why our students' marks on the Alberta exams are generally lower than the term marks they have going into the exams? Thank you.