Page 11, Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, directorate and administration, not previously authorized, negative $46,000.

Education and culture, not previously authorized, $364,000. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask, the student information system that we failed to implement last year and we’re proposing to bring the money over into this year to implement this year, I understand that this is an

important program. There is, you know, sort of an urgent need to get this done.

Can I get a little more information on that? What is the urgent need to get this done? What are the challenges to getting it done, and how are we going to work on this differently to make sure we complete this this fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.

Again, I’m not totally clear yet on what the system does. I understand that we don’t have a system because the other one hasn’t been maintained. Report cards, I think, was mentioned. Obviously, that sort of information, following students and making sure we capture information on them seems pretty critical from year to year.

Could I just get a little more in-depth explanation of the student information system and what it is that we don’t have in place at this moment?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the key point is the system that was previously there has been discontinued and the service for it stopped last June, basically a year ago. We have a non-functioning system that contains all the basic data we have about students across the land, grade K to 12 in all the schools in the Northwest Territories, as well as the specific information for report cards, all the plans they do, the student plans and the demographic information. We have a fairly mobile population, so there are people, families, children moving around. That system that provides all that information that can be moved and track all the key elements of our education system, which is our students, is non-functioning and we need to get it replaced and a new system up to date and in place to fill that gap.

Mr. Chair, again, it does seem like critical information to know when we’re talking about our students here. The Minister mentioned a couple of things why we want to be tracking our students. We have a lot of special needs students, as we know, across the Territories. I assume this means we’re not tracking these sorts of things, because we have a non-functioning system. When

will this be up and running once we approve this budget? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the intent is to carry on with the work and get it done as soon as possible. They have another school year coming up in the fall. The anticipation is they’d like to have this system functional by then. I would point out one of the other purposes of the student information system of course is tied to the funding for DEAs and DECs which is based on enrolment as of October. The plan would be to get it done and hopefully to be up and ready by the upcoming school year in September.

Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister for that additional information. That does sound like important use of this system. I don’t know whether the Minister is aware or knowledgeable in this area, but covering the bases and this information obviously sounds so important that I don’t think we can really exist without it somehow. How are things being handled in the meantime until we do get a new electronic system in place?

Mr. Chair, I am going to turn to the Minister of Education and see if he can speak to the system issues as they now exist. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, regarding the student information system, there have been some changes to our current system. In order to be trained on a new educational system, we need to have that mechanism in place. We are tracking the students, as the Minister alluded to earlier, because everything is based on enrolment. We have to monitor the student progress, attendance and so forth. The conversion from one system to another does take time and that’s the reason why we had this training mechanism in place to convert to another system. That is what is before us today. It is continually improving that system. We are hoping that by fall it will be up and running fully. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Education and culture, not previously authorized, $364,000. Agreed?

Advanced education, not previously authorized, $41,000. Agreed?

Income security, not previously authorized, $9,000. Agreed?

Total department, not previously authorized, $368,000. Agreed?