Thank you, Madam Chair. [English translation not provided.]
Madam Chair, I’m opening up my comments obviously in my maternal French language, which is a right that we have, as well as many other jurisdictions in Canada. I think that brings to my question that even in the Legislative Assembly we have opportunities to help promote our language. We do not have any translators behind me to do the proper translations in French. I guess that goes without saying that we have opportunities in general with all languages, all our languages that are recognized here in the Territories, and again we know the challenges.
With respect to the Minister’s opening remarks or comments as we go into the budget, obviously this is the second largest budget of our government. I’m pleased to see some direction. I’m pleased to see some direct opportunities in terms of early childhood development, as I mentioned earlier, and also advances especially in the career area.
What I didn’t see in here, and this is probably more a functionality of some of the work that we’ve been doing in the past number of months, work we’ve done with the Auditor General of Canada, work we’ve done in terms of opportunities not only for the Department of Education but for many other departments. The Auditor General of Canada was very specific in nature in providing this government with a lot of guidelines and recommendations in terms of where this department can move forward to better themselves and be a better department for not only themselves but for the people of the Northwest Territories. In the recommendations of the Auditor General is the deployment of measurables, key indicators, dashboard indicators, if you will, in terms of the performance of the department. Given the fact that this was a very extensive process that the Regular Members did do with the Minister, I was a bit, I guess, shocked that that wasn’t part of the new mandate of the department. Trying to prove that the programs that are coming on board over the next couple of years during the life of this Assembly are going to be able to be broadcast in a way that are measured, that the Members here have an opportunity to comment, and at the end of the day that hopefully we have a
product, deliverable, for the people of the Northwest Territories.
One of the only things I can comment on, obviously, which is not in here in a general sense, is our achievement tests that our students do write annually, and of course the results that we got of those tests back on February 28th obviously raise a
lot of concerns and questions. I’m not going to speak on behalf of the small communities, it was already brought up by Mr. Yakeleya, but other MLAs that wish to from the communities that are rural are more than happy to jump in. My comments will be more so around the issues of Yellowknife because this is where my constituents reside. Keeping that in mind, Mr. Minister, and I know he’s aware that I have children in the system as well, so I’m speaking as a parent as well who’s got two kids in the system. So this is also very close to my heart. As Mr. Yakeleya said, when you have kids in the system you’re a lot more in tune with what’s going on.
The results that we got back on February 28th regarding the Alberta Achievement Tests written by our Grade 3, Grade 6, and Grade 9 students are somewhat puzzling and somewhat troublesome. Albeit that the results from Yellowknife were somewhat higher than the rest of the region, there are still areas of concern. As Mr. Yakeleya has mentioned earlier, there is a gap. There’s even a gap between Yellowknife and Alberta in general, and I think that gap needs to be a high target for this government and this department to find ways to rectify that. When your Grade 9 math results come in at 53 percent where Alberta averages at 73.9 percent, that’s a gap. That means that our Grade 9 math are nowhere near capable of handling the rigours of what’s before them in terms of opportunities and we are narrowing the scope of opportunity of these students as they progress in their final years of secondary and hopefully moving on to post-secondary.
Be that as it may, the other interesting statistic that jumped off is obviously a lot of the percentage of students that are excused is very troublesome. The whole aspect of social passing and promoting a functional grade level equivalent, in my mind, really is not serving the needs of our public. We’re becoming complacent as a society, one in which I would like to see rectified as we move forward over the life of the 17th Assembly. When close to 20
percent of your students are not writing the exam and are being excused because of a social passing, that number is far too large considering the fact that Alberta is only at around 5 percent. We’re four times higher than Alberta. These are alarming statistics that put us and our students really at a disadvantage if we really truly want to see them succeed in careers. Even if it’s going to Aurora College, even if it’s going to tech schools, we’re not doing our students any justice.
My opening comments are more so not what we’ve seen today, which I think are some good stuff in terms of what’s coming down the pipe for the department, but what’s missing is those measureables and how we communicate those measureables not only to the people of the House but to the people of the Northwest Territories, so as parents, as teachers, as administration, we have indicators of how well our kids are doing and not waiting until the Grade 3, Grade 6, Grade 9, and using only our one tool, as far as I’m concerned, as our achievement tests. I’m hoping that the department and department officials are listening. I’m hoping that the Minister is paying attention. These are recommendations, not just a Member sitting here talking about what he thinks is important. These are instruments. These are tools. These are standards that the Auditor General of Canada has asked of this government not only in education but in other departments.
I’d like to thank you for your time, for the delegation. I’m looking forward to diving into the details of the budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.