Big bucks for education
Working Together program extended
FACT FILE
The NWT and Nunavut have 88 schools.
Total enrolment for both territories combined was 17,563 students (latest date from 1997-98), up from 17,378 in the prior year.
Total enrolment across the NWT and Nunavut combined has jumped 28 per cent in the 1990s (13,748 students in 1989-90).
Grade 12 graduates in 1997-98 totalled 325 people.
About 2,000 people receive GNWT post-secondary grants and loans. The number assistance in the 1990s has doubled.
Total school enrolment in 1998-99 in the Northwest Territories was 9,769 students. Of the total, 5,604 students were in elementary grades (4,847 in grades 1-6 and 757 students in kindergarten) while 2,062 attended junior high and 2,103 attended senior high.
Source: GNWT Bureau of Statistics

Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 23/99) - Just under one-quarter of total NWT government costs go to education, culture and employment.

It's a Western Arctic department that will require $167.6 million in fiscal 1999-2000, or 23 per cent of the GNWT's total year expenditure estimate of $723.4 million, according to the main estimates.

From a cost perspective, Education, Culture and Employment is second to none. The Department of Health and Social Services is a close second when it comes to departmental costs.

Some 62 per cent of the $167.6 million will cover education and culture costs while 35 per cent and three per cent, respectively, will go to advanced education/careers and directorate/administration.

"We have extended grades to all communities in the NWT and helped adults return to school to continue their education," Finance Minister and former Education Culture and Employment Minister Charles Dent said in his budget address earlier this year.

According to Dent, 36 per cent of the NWTs adult population have not completed high school.

"This limits access to jobs in government, resource industries and in other sectors of the economy," he said.

To ensure the pupil-teacher ratio remains at last years levels, government allocated $1.2 million in funding.

This means even with growth in the number of school-age children, the teacher-pupil ratio will not increase.

Also in the budget, government aimed $1 million at the Working Together program. The money extends the two-year program for a third year and is expected to create about 450 new jobs.

In 1997-98, the program, which provides employers with wage subsidies to hire Northern students and youth, over 900 job opportunities were created in 33 NWT communities.

Government also budgeted $1 million for its Investing in People program which helps fund adult basic education and job-related skills training for income support clients.

As for how the total Education, Culture and Employment budget is allocated, here's a breakdown.

  • Directorate and administration: $5.4 million.

  • Advanced education and careers, which includes college costs: $58.9 million.

  • Education and culture, which oversees delivery of kindergarten to Grade 12 school programs: $103.2 million.

FACT FILE:

  • Fifteen per cent of the NWT's population have an education level of less than Grade 9. (Canada: 12 per cent).

  • Thirty per cent of the NWTs population have some high school education. (Canada: 37 per cent).

  • When it comes to university education, the NWT and Canada have similar percentages -- about 13 per cent -- of people with a university degree.

  • At every educational level, the NWT is ahead of the national average when it comes to employment.

  • Over 90 per cent of the NWTs residents with a university degree or higher have jobs. (Canada: 80 per cent).

  • Seventy-four per cent of NWT residents with a trades certificate or diploma are employed. (Canada: 64 per cent).

    Source: GNWT from 1996 Census.