Motion for money
MLAs unite in the call for educational funding

Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 08/98) - The cry for education funding reverberated through the legislature last week

A motion recommending additional funding for education was passed June 1 with overwhelming support from all MLAs with the exception of one.

Here is the motion:

Whereas the NWT has the highest student-teacher ration in Canada;

And whereas teachers in the NWT are facing increasing challenges, including diverse and multi-grade classes, with fewer and inadequate resources;

And whereas nearly one half of the students in the NWT require specific supports in the classroom, and approximately half of these students receive them;

And whereas the majority of NWT students who participated in the national School Achievement Indicators Program tests ranked below an acceptable level in most areas;

And whereas there are 18,000 adults in the NWT who can be classified as illiterate or semi-illiterate;

And whereas Adult Basic Education includes academic upgrading, pre-employment training and personal skill development;

And whereas alternative delivery approaches, supports for students, community involvement and accredit programs are necessary to achieve success in adult education;

And whereas most jurisdictions have been revising their curricula to place more emphasis on the core subject areas of reading, writing, mathematics and science to return to more objective criteria and expectations and to return to more traditional teaching methods;

And whereas about 45 per cent of new jobs created in this decade will require a minimum of 16 years of education;

And whereas the NWT high school graduation rate is 25 per cent of enrolment, while the national average is 68 per cent;

Now therefore I move ... that the legislative assembly strongly recommends the executive council increase base funding to the department of Education Culture and Employment in the current 1998-999 fiscal year by a minimum of the six per cent reduction that occurred over the past two years.