Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to ask a question of Melanie Bennett in Yukon.
I appreciate all the witnesses appearing today and congrats to our new chair as well.
Melanie, you referred to this earlier. I'm just going to quote a Yukon News article titled “Long-standing gaps in student outcomes persist as Yukon government works to close them”. It starts off like this:
The territorial government is taking steps that it hopes will lead to better student outcomes nearly three years after an auditor general's report slammed the Department of Education for falling short of understanding and addressing long-standing gaps.
It goes on to say:
According to the March 9 news release, the department created a performance and analytics unit in 2018 to better manage and analyze student performance data, and a joint data working group was created in 2020 with the chiefs committee on education to improve data-sharing with Yukon First Nations about student outcomes.
Lastly, it says:
As for the breakdown by self-identification status, the graduation rate among Yukon First Nation students was 66 per cent or 65 out of 98 potential graduates.
The graduation rate was even lower for “other Indigenous” students, at 63 per cent or 22 out of 35 graduates.
I bring that up because I appreciate why you are doing what you're doing in your organization. I really appreciate it, as a former teacher myself. I really have a heart for students and kids and want to see them get through high school to achieve greater success in life.
I wanted to give you the opportunity. In your earlier testimony, you said you'd like to elaborate. I want you to elaborate on what's next.
We know why you're here. You're here to help things get better in Yukon. Please elaborate.