Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being Education Week, I thought I would speak about a topic that I have spoken about many times in this House relating to education, and that is the adequacy of student support funding.
Mr. Speaker, I recently had the opportunity to review the latest Towards Excellence report put together by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. In it, I read some fairly disturbing statistics.
Mr. Speaker, we are still failing far too many children with special needs. The report reads that of the 9,619 students for whom data were collected, teachers reported that 47 percent or 4,487 needed one or more supports. However, 26 percent, or more than 1,000 of all students who needed some type or level of additional support, were not receiving any support or service beyond that provided to students as part of the regular classroom program.
Mr. Speaker, of the number of students needing specific supports, roughly 10 percent of them were falling through the cracks and receiving no support. Ten percent of all the students who need support aren't getting anything.
Mr. Speaker, in assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of the supports provided to children with behavioral issues, those requiring the most time, energy and resources to support, almost 2,872 were identified. Eighty-one percent were identified as not receiving enough help. Only 13 percent are seeing substantial progress and more than 40 percent are seeing very little.
Since we have a higher proportion of students in need of special supports in the Northwest Territories, shouldn't we increase the funding to allow those special supports to happen?
Mr. Speaker, we know that inclusive schooling is the right policy, but for it to work we need to give adequate support to the teachers to make it work. We've increased our student support funding to 15 percent. Mr. Speaker, some southern jurisdictions claim they offer 24 to 25 percent of their total funding to student support.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. is embarked on an initiative which is called No Child Left Behind. I think we have to take that phrase to heart ourselves. Mr. Speaker, I urge the government to continue finding ways to increase the funding for special supports and special needs to give all kids in the NWT a fighting chance to be the best that they can be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause