Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise my colleague from Hay River North that I stand here to beg today. Mr. Speaker, on May 16th, the Parent Advisory Group at Range Lake North School in my riding had an open forum on the effect of class sizes on children's learning. The goal of the forum was for all of the stakeholders to collectively address the issue of large class sizes and the impact it has on our children's ability to learn. The evening was well attended by parents, teachers and the representatives from both city school districts, departmental officials and MLAs, including the Minister of Education, the Honourable Joe Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the research that was presented clearly indicated that too many students in a class have a very negative effect on a student's ability to learn. The reality is that at Range Lake North School, the classrooms were designed for 22 students, but many classes have 28 to 30 students or more. In grades 4 to 8, numbers are up to 30 to 33 students per class. To make the situation worse, many of these are split classes.

This is simply intolerable, Mr. Speaker. Members, Ministers, and all of the officials in school districts, elected or otherwise, as a group of leaders we must do something about this. The students in grades 4 to 6 classes have written personal notes on how their big classes are making learning difficult. Later on today I will be tabling those letters from the children, as well as a petition from the parents in my riding. I would encourage the Minister and the government to read these letters from the children because they will tell you they cannot learn, they cannot concentrate and they cannot get the attention of the teachers when they need to. Nor can they take part in gym or music classes as much as they would like because there are just too many students.

Mr. Speaker, we must find a way to cap the maximum students in a classroom from grades 1 to 8 at 25. We must find the money to do this. I stand here begging, Mr. Speaker. Like many in this House and every parent and teacher out there, I have been put through a wringer, or more like a propaganda machine, about the technical difference between the classroom size versus PTR ad nauseum, or the nuances of national averages, territorial averages, et cetera.

I want to borrow from Scarlet O'Hara and say, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a..." The only important thing I need to know is that this is not working and we need to think of...