Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I rise to speak to an important issue that is integral to the development of our territory: the education of our children and young Northerners. Earlier this month, in a CBC article, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment confirmed that the educational achievement of our school children is lower than hoped for.
The article reported that just over half of grade 6 students and about 47 per cent of grade 9 students met an acceptable standard in English. While, in math, this was shown to be worse than 43 per cent achieving acceptable standards in grade 6 math and 39 per cent in grade 9.
Mr. Speaker, underperformance in student achievement is a long-standing issue in the NWT. As far back as 2010, the Auditor General of Canada indicated that, between 2004 and 2008, there was limited or no progress in grades 3, 6, and 9 in math and in grades 6 and 9 in language arts.
As an MLA but also as a parent, I find the lack of progress on this issue deeply troubling. Mr. Speaker, the Education Renewal Initiative was launched in 2013 to much fanfare. From the outset, the initiative specifically identified student achievement as an area that required improvement and even noted that the existing approach to student achievement wasn't producing the desired results.
Well, here we are five years later, halfway into the 10-year cycle of education renewal, and still we hear that the results are not up to the department's expectations. I understand that many of the actions take time to bear fruit. However, after five years, I would think it is safe to say we should be seeing at least modest improvements. Instead, we appear to have stagnated at roughly the same levels we had in 2013.
On top of that, evaluation and reporting on the goals of education renewal is scant to non-existent, in spite of the department's own website claiming that results need to be shared with the public and different interest groups. This leads many members of the public wondering what fundamental impact the Education Renewal Initiative has had on the school system to date.
Mr. Speaker, the goals of the Education Renewal Initiative are commendable. I admire them for setting such ambitious goals. We need to empower children and young Northerners and provide them with the tools to succeed, not just in academia, but also in life. Later today, I will be asking the Minister responsible what she is doing to make this vision a reality. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.