Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE. Mr. Speaker, what is ECE doing to ensure early literacy screening is available at the public school level in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, while Education, Culture and Employment does not mandate specific programs of any type in NWT schools. Because of our decentralized system, we certainly do work to coordinate with our education bodies as we can. So education bodies are responsible to confirm and implement programs that support the delivery of curriculum within the schools, and sometimes this might include referrals to the diagnostic assessments that do happen through the school funding framework, Mr. Speaker. There's also the flexibility to accommodate local decision-making and sometimes that includes, you know, bringing in different specialty items to work with teachers, like -- sorry, different specialty professional development opportunities to work with teachers so that they can really focus on the needs that they have in their classroom. But through the school funding framework, our education bodies take on the role of supporting their teachers with extra supports in classrooms. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I noted in my statement that our last literacy strategy framework ended in 2018. Mr. Speaker, when is a renewed literacy strategy going to be introduced? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I heard the Member's comment in his Member's statement. And currently, there is no intent to update the literacy strategy in the Northwest Territories that expired in 2018. We do have, however, have our 2030 early learning and childcare strategy as well as our early learning framework which emphasizes literacy within both of those documents. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I noted in my statement that most other jurisdictions in Canada are implementing programs to ensure early literacy screening is happening in schools. Can the Minister commit to following suit in the NWT and get early screening for literacy done in NWT schools? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, within our shift to an NWT-adapted BC curriculum, the broader curriculum does have an assessment framework, an early literacy assessment tool, that teachers can use that's built into it. So assessments will be happening and will be -- the tools will be afforded to teachers to do some of those assessments in classrooms to be able to catch some of these challenges and concerns earlier on. It's important to note this is not a diagnostic assessment, and it's also important to note that there are the well child clinics that parents do have available to them before their child starts school.
In direct response to the Member's question, absolutely, within my ability and our decentralized education system, I would absolutely be happy to look at other models and commit to reviewing the screening and assessment tools that other jurisdictions are using and find out how we can potentially look at how those might work within our jurisdiction and our model. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
