The Yukon NDP is celebrating the passage of party leader Kate White’s private member’s bill on education curricula.

White’s Bill 307, An Act to Amend the Yukon Education Act, cleared the legislature on Wednesday, with unanimous support from MLAs.

“Today’s vote is a win for high school students across the Yukon,” White said later Wednesday afternoon.

The bill updates the Education Act by repealing part of the legislation that limits students’ options to take locally developed courses.

It also brings the act in line with British Columbia’s policies on school curricula already followed by the Yukon’s Education department.

The portion of the act to be repealed states that locally developed courses can’t account for more than 20 per cent of student courseloads per year or per semester.

“This had stopped many high school students from taking locally developed courses at all, because most Yukon high schools offer four courses per semester,” the NDP said.

White added, “Students are much more likely to stay in school when they can learn skills that are relevant in their communities.

Many of these locally developed courses cover things like youth leadership, local knowledge keeping, and climate change.”

White’s bill received letters of support from the Yukon First Nation School Board (FNSB) and First Nation Education Directorate (YFNED) as well as the territory’s French-language school authority, Le Commission Scolaire Francophone du Yukon.

Ted Hupé, the president of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals, emailed all three parties in support of the bill.

“(Yukon students) are here, on this land, right now – that is a part of who they are, and their story,” said FNSB director Melissa Flynn.

“Because of this, they have a responsibility and a privilege to learn the history and culture of this place.”

Melanie Bennett, the YFNED’s executive director, wrote that the directorate “wholeheartedly supports” repealing the cap on locally developed courses.

“Not only does this fail Indigenous students who want to take culturally relevant coursework, but it also deprives non-First Nations students from taking courses that teach them about subjects relevant to their home: courses on land claims, leadership, traditional technologies, etc.,” Bennett said.

Longtime Yukon educator Bob Sharp, who consulted with the NDP caucus on White’s bill, watched Wednesday afternoon’s House debate from the public viewing gallery.

“It was touch-and-go for a while, but in the end, MLAs made the right call,” said Sharp, who is now retired.

Sharp played a pivotal role designing experiential learning programs for the Education department. He continues to develop school curricula for the YFNED.

Wednesday was the second round of debate on the bill.