Thank you. No, I agree, there should be no restrictions on who can attend early learning childcare. Thank you.
Debates of March 2nd, 2022
This is page numbers 3665 - 3710 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.
Topics
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The Chair Lesa Semmler
Thank you. Are there any further questions? No? All right. Do we have any Members who wish to speak to the early learning and childcare?
Seeing none, can you please turn to page 41, Education, Culture and Employment, early learning and childcare, operation expenditures summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $9,000,648 -- oh, sorry. It's -- yeah. No, $12,791,000. Does committee agree?
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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The Chair Lesa Semmler
Thank you. And we are going to skip income security just due to witnesses switching around and we're going to go over to page 51 -- no, sorry. Find my right page here. Page 48, Education, Culture and Employment, junior kindergarten to grade 12 on page -- yeah, 48, with information items on page 50 to 52. Questions? Member for Deh Cho.
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Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho
Mahsi, Madam Chair. I'm going to reference the switch over in curriculum from Alberta to the BC curriculum. I'm wondering if there's any progress being made and if the Minister could update us to where we're at with this? Mahsi.
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R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Thank you. And so I will just start off by saying that the process is going to be slow enough so that everyone is well aware of what's happening, that teachers have an appropriate amount of time to become familiar with the new curriculum and that this rolls out smoothly. So we're not a rush to roll it out but, you know, we want to make sure we do it in a way that is not going to cause any issues for anyone. That's what we heard when we went out and had our discussions. People want to make sure that they know what's going, they know what's happening, they're familiar with the curriculum, and that we are not just forcing this on them. But for some details on how things are going, I can, through you Madam Chair, hand it off to the deputy minister. Thank you.
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Macdonald
Thank you, Madam Chair. So as the Minister indicated, there isn't an intention to suddenly transition to a British Columbia curriculum. Currently, ECE is in the process of developing an implementation plan including involvement of Indigenous governments and organizations and, of course, education bodies, as well as the Northwest Territories Teachers Association. So currently, we're targeting the 2023-2024 school year as the year where we would begin to introduce a phased-in approach to curriculum, starting in the early years. However, we expect that within the next few weeks, we'll be reaching out to those partners so that we can begin to discuss everybody's needs and their level of interest in participating in some of the planning. Thank you, Madam Chair.
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Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho
Yeah, mahsi for that. It's going to be a pretty interesting transition to -- I note that the BC curriculum has a focus to competency-based learning. I'm not sure if I really understand what that is geared towards. Can the Minister explain what is meant by this? Mahsi.
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R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Thank you. And I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it's not -- it's not based on just memorization the way that perhaps we might think of some older styles of curriculum. It's based on helping students develop competencies in different areas so they know how to think and they know how to do things as opposed to just knowing facts. I can ask the deputy minister for his description, which I'm sure is much more rich than mine. Thank you.
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Macdonald
Thank you, Madam Chair. So one of the things that distinguishes a competency-based curriculum from what would typically or more traditionally be an outcomes-based curriculum is it's centered on the learner as opposed to the teacher or the instructor, and it tends to be not so content focused. So those who have been in school before will recall that the curriculum is really focused on subjects and content and facts and dates, if you're thinking about social studies as an example, whereas competency-based curriculum is really around what skills and attitude and behaviour that you would expect to see from students, and that is really more focused on self-directed learning and skills that would be beneficial for all of life and that are more cross-curricular in terms of not being focused on one subject area. So that is the major distinction between competency- versus outcome-based curriculum. Thank you, Madam Chair.
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Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho
Mahsi for that explanation. I guess I will require further information on that one.
It seems from what materials I have on the BC curriculum, it's based on Indigenous world views, knowledge, and perspectives. Is this a northern studies curriculum?
My concern is that we may be losing sight of the academic learning considering the Indigenous view to educate our young to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, to name a few professions, but. Can the Minister comment on that? Mahsi.
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R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Thank you. And what the Member is saying about that -- I mean, academic view and ensuring that our residents can achieve what they want to achieve in terms of a profession, I heard that across the territory when we had our engagements, and I can assure the Member that, you know, Canada -- despite you know, some of our concerns, Canada really does have one of the best education systems in the world, and that's because each of the individual education systems is a world class education system, including British Columbia. And so I have no concerns that the curriculum from British Columbia will in any way disadvantage students. It is one of the best curriculums in the world. And so I'm excited that we get to, you know, go down this path. So I can assure the Member that he should have no concerns about the academic quality of the BC's curriculum. Thank you.
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Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho
Mahsi for that, Minister. I look forward to more information on this and especially from the stakeholders, the teachers and the district education authorities, because I stated before that the DEAs really need workshops. They need to start, you know, incorporating those back in because right now I notice, and I talked to other DEAs, they're totally lost. Nobody's keeping them in the loop or telling them anything or not listening to them. So, you know, that's a little bit concerning. I did a statement on that before.
I just want to switch over and the Skills 4 Success, because I inquired with our school and the DEA specifically and they never ever heard of the program themselves before. I'm not sure if it's geared or has a component that does with high school students or where -- what this one is really for. If you could explain the whole program to me maybe, perhaps. Mahsi.
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R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Thank you. And when we get into a later activity, we can talk more about this as it is more in the labour activity. But that being said, Skills 4 Success is a strategy. It has related action plans and those actions are intended to help develop certain occupations in the Northwest Territories, and they have a focus on, you know, training of people after they come out of the JK to 12 system. But during this last round of consultation, there was a lot of comments about needing to integrate the trades into secondary schools and, you know, the whole JK to 12 system. And so Skills 4 Success is not necessarily a program for the JK to 12 system, but we realize that stronger integration is required and we are moving in that direction. Thank you.
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Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho
Yes, mahsi for that explanation. You said it was in the other section or something. I'll ask the question again there maybe but I'm okay. I'm okay at this time. Mahsi.