Educational change has never been easy. The education of our children is something we value greatly. That's why the Government is asking for your advice before making decisions that affect you, your children and your school community. The purpose of this consultation process is to determine how we can best work together to organize our schools and our student transportation system for the future.
As we move to a system of education with ten interdenominational school districts, we will be faced with decisions as to how to best provide a quality education to our young people under the new system. Some schools will join together. Some may have to close. This means issues such as school viability and student transportation will need to be discussed. Our goal is to make decisions related to these issues in a responsible way - so that in the end, students will benefit. We also need to provide an appropriate mechanism for parents to indicate their preference to have their children attend uni-denominational schools. We will be asking you some questions and suggesting some options to help achieve these goals.
Some people might say that things are fine just the way they are and that we should continue to operate all the schools we currently have open. But the fact is that the number of students in our Province is in decline. Over the past ten years, enrolment decreases of more than 40% have occurred in a number of our schools. This is happening at a time when the Province's ability to pay for education is being hampered by the economic realities of the nineties. In spite of this, Newfoundland and Labrador has spent and continues to spend more on education than any other province in Canada, relative to our ability to fund education.
The situation in our Province is that schools that were once viable are left with so few students that it is unreasonable to operate them. This means that the human and physical resources necessary to offer our students the best possible education are being spread out over more schools than can be sustained. For example, additional building maintenance costs take away from money that could be channeled to educate students in the classroom. We have to do something about this. The issue is a financial one yes, but more importantly it is an issue of educational quality. During these consultations we have to talk about how many schools can be maintained; we have to take a close look at communities or areas with more than one school; we have to examine busing options to bring students in small schools to larger ones which will offer them greater opportunities; we have to consider whether we can use student transportation dollars more efficiently, and we have to be prepared to discuss meaningful changes to our school system.
I ask you to take a serious look at the information presented in this consultation document. I believe it sets an appropriate context for this process and provides the key indicators which we need to discuss structural matters. The next few months will present a host of challenges and opportunities for all of us involved in the operation of the school system in Newfoundland and Labrador. Through this process we will ensure that Government and others entrusted with the responsibility of structuring the new system will make the appropriate decisions for the future of education.