Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off by saying that was nice to see the NWT Teachers’ Association set up their display and their meet-and-greet in the Great Hall this morning. They do it every year to talk about the successes and the great work of their educators.
I’d like to recognize all the educators throughout the North, but take this opportunity to recognize a
certain group that does extraordinary work, and that’s the staff at the Dechinta Bush University. They have taken a very unique approach in promoting our traditional knowledge, culture and education throughout the Northwest Territories and getting participants from all the regions. They actually utilize a lot of our elders to promote and revitalize culture and traditions, something that is needed within this government, while also working on other academic achievements.
I’d just like to mention a few highlights Dechinta has done over the years. First of all, they’re celebrating their five-year anniversary of land-based, university-accredited education. As my colleague Mr. Menicoche said, they’re getting more applications than the funding that they have to meet these growing needs and people that want to go to school and get educated. Not only educated in the academic sense but also educated in traditional knowledge and culture, which is something that’s being lost in some of the regions. This year alone, 97 people applied for 30 places, and for the spring they’ve had 34 applications and only 10 spots, so that means 24 other people are losing out on this very important education.
Dechinta has been operating in the NWT since 2009, and in that time they have had 250 course completions – and listen to this – and no dropouts during that time. You compare that to our education system, you can compare that to Aurora College system, compare that to any post-secondary education institution that we send students to down south, and this is 100 percent completion rates. That goes to show that we need to support this university in a bigger and better way. In fact, 10 people are in this program for the springtime and yet we’re spending millions of dollars on programs in the Aurora College system and we’re not even close to those numbers for certain programs. We’ve got to re-evaluate how we’re spending those dollars.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted