Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 15/99) - Communities in the western NWT are helping the Department of Education understand what values they think should be included in the new education plan.

Charles Dent, minister of Education, Culture and Employment, has ordered a new strategic plan for education in the western NWT which will specifically serve the education needs of its residents in light of the territorial split.

The department sent out four delegates to visit 11 communities in person plus communicate with several other communities to gather comments, suggestions and recommendations about education. After two months of collecting and reviewing the information, the department was prepared to present their findings during a two-day conference in Fort Smith.

The conference, held March 9 and 10, drew about 160 people who wanted to hear what the communities had to say and give their own opinions about education in the western NWT.

"The findings (comments from the communities) were not just presented to me but to a broad cross-section of stakeholders," said Dent. "It laid the groundwork for some good discussion and there were recommendations made from that. There will be a report coming out of the conference that will (be used to create) the strategic plan."

Several information and discussion sessions were organized for the remainder of the conference following the presentation of the communities' comments. The sessions focused on specific issues that had been identified by the communities and were headed by speakers who presented additional information relating to the issues.

Those who attended the sessions were able to discuss the issues with the speakers and others in the group session.

Sydney O' Sullivan, superintendent for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the Fort Smith region said the individual attention given to issues in the group sessions was good for encouraging people's comments.

"It gave people a chance to give their impressions about things," said O' Sullivan. "The small groups helped frame up the issues out of the big congestion (of the conference). The array of issues was excellent. The topics seemed to be those most pertinent in everybody's mind."

One issue of particular interest during the conference was early childhood education and the concern with the lack of long-term funding for programs in the communities.

"The communities are tremendously excited about us providing this (program funding) and said they want to know this is here for the long term," said Dent. "They want funding on the long-term so they don't have to make a yearly application."

Another issue of significant concern raised both during the conference and during the community consultations was the need for more teaching staff.

"There were many who thought we needed to find resources to bring down the pupil/teacher ratio (in the classrooms)...and to deal with special needs (students)," said Dent.

Finding the money to increase staff poses a difficulty with the five per cent cut in federal funding which the western NWT is expecting due to the territorial split.

"Clearly there is a challenge if there is no extra (funding) coming in," said Dent. "(The cuts) allow us to maintain (education service) just as it is."