Thank you, Minister Moses. Committee, I would like to welcome Mr. Patrick Joss from Ulukhaktok, I believe, who has joined us in the gallery, and anyone else who has joined us this evening. Always good to see people in the gallery. Masi. Any further questions from committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and just to some degree along the same lines as my colleague I would like to just get down a little bit more into early childhood. I am sure the department is aware that at one point there was a local professional of some sort who had raised some concern with regard to the EDI as a method to be used in the first place to evaluate early childhood development. I am just wondering if the department can comment to that effect. Are they confident that the EDI instrument itself is the accurate tool to use on a go-forward basis? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and this is a tool that is used right across Canada. I think Nunavut is the only jurisdiction that currently does not use EDI results. We share these results with the Department of Health and Social Services as well and it helps them give direction into the programs that they are outlining. It helps us with information that we need to provide programs and services. It is also a program that is used around the world, and we do feel that the results and the EDI tool itself works well for us and we have done five years of complete data and we are on our sixth year using the results right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the reply. It is good to know that we have confidence in that system, then, in a go-forward basis. We have used that tool as a means to knowing the statistics that have come from it which clearly identify that we have some challenges in front of us. The department has indicated in their business plan that two of the primary areas of focus to assist in increasing or improving these outcomes in the EDI is the implementation of Right From the Start Early Childhood Framework and Action Plan, and then, of course, junior kindergarten.

So as it relates to implementing of the Right From the Start Early Childhood Framework and Action Plan, can the Minister provide us a little bit more detail and some update as it relates to what we're doing with that particular framework and action plan in terms of, you know, increasing accessibility and participation in early childhood development programs and services? That would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and earlier today we did do a presentation to standing committee on the Right from the Start Action Plan. It has 19 actions; we gave updates on all of the items rolling forward, and we did have a good discussion about the EDI tool as well. We did offer to committee that if possible we could bring Dr. Janus to Yellowknife and have a more comprehensive detailed discussion with committee on the EDI results that we have seen, and I believe all Members also got a letter from Dr. Janus on the validity of the tool and results. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I can just say confidently now that it is a good idea for Members to show up to these briefings. No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Next we have Ms. Green.

Mr. Chair, I am trying to understand the department's goal of addressing attendance and graduation rates in light of the commitment to reducing instructional hours in the classroom. Could the Minister tell us how those two things are compatible? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are doing a number of things within the department with our education renewal. One thing in terms of graduation, we are doing a Pathways to Graduation that we are working with students as young as grade seven, grade eight, and finding what their needs are, as I mentioned in my Minister's statement earlier today. What their interests are, what they want to explore, and we want to support that.

The instructional hours allows for teachers to do some planning, assess, do some professional development for themselves, and get prepared so that they can have quality education and quality teaching in the classroom. That hopefully will have more of our students more engaged and be in the classroom itself. So there are many other things that we are doing with education renewal, and I do believe we are going to be doing a presentation to standing committee with some of those pilots that we have been working on, and I think that is sometime during this sitting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, could the Minister remind me what the Education Renewal Initiative says about reducing instructional hours? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and it just looks at improving student outcomes, as well as strengthening teacher professional development and the supports that they have. It is going to be a three-year pilot, so it is like much of our other Education Renewal Initiatives that we are doing throughout the Northwest Territories. It is going to be piloted this coming school year and making sure that we are improving teacher and student wellness, strengthening the teachers and learning, and also strengthening cultural programs' sense of identity, and increasing system-wide accountability with the results. So those are the four main areas around education renewal, and we feel that the instructional time falls right into that category. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the Minister, I do not see that reduced instructional hours fits into any of those objectives. Taking students out of the classroom for an additional 100 hours a year, or a total one whole year of education over the life of their school career, I just do not see how this is going to meet the outcomes that are put forward in the Education Renewal Initiative. So having said that, how will the department assess the results of the reduced instructional hours? What are the specific measures that are going to be used to measure the outcomes?

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and currently all schools that are wanting to participate in the pilot are working on how it is going to roll out. I also want to say that it is up to 100 hours; it is not completely 100 hours. It is going to be up to the schools to make those distinctions and decisions, but we will continue to monitor and evaluate, like any of our pilot programs that we have right now and look at the successes, and if there are any challenges for how we need to adjust those. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I understand correctly, there is no departmental standard for assessing the results of this experiment. This is simply for each school to develop its own measures and report those whenever they are required. Is that correct? Thank you.