The P.E.I. government is considering subsidizing wages for daycare workers in an overhaul of how children are educated before they begin kindergarten.
Kathleen Flanagan, an early childhood education consultant, is drafting the province's first plan for the children who will be left behind in daycares when kindergarten students move into the public school system this fall.
Kindergarten programs are now run by private child-care centres.
"We're keeping a completely open mind about this, we're looking at trends from across Canada," Flanagan said Wednesday as she met with key players in early learning, including daycare owners.
Her report will examine whether P.E.I. should follow Ontario's lead and send four-year-olds to preschool. Other issues include whether daycares should follow a standard curriculum and if the government should subsidize wages for daycare workers.
Doug Currie, the minister of education and early childhood development, said he is aware of the desire for subsidized wages.
"We do have to recognize this work is valued and that we respect the work of the early childhood sector, and so wage enhancements do need to be on the table," he told CBC News.
The P.E.I. government pays child-care centres $3 million a year for kindergarten programs. Some of the Island's 31 child-care centres have said they may have to close without that money.
Sonya Corrigan, the executive director of the Early Childhood Development Association of P.E.I., said the organization would like to see the government pay 100 per cent of child-care costs to make up for the loss of the kindergarten program money.
"Realistically, it's probably not going to be something that we'll see in a three-month study," she said. "But certainly the framework would give us, I would hope, some steps to build on to get there eventually."
Although there will not be public hearings to provide input for Flanagan's report, parents of preschoolers can fill out a survey on the Department of Education website.
Flanagan is expected to submit her report by April 1.
via www.cbc.ca
Welfare is often described as Canada’s social safety net of last resort, because it was designed to assist people who have exhausted all other means of support. Welfare is supposedly designed to cover the cost of the necessities of life. As we will see repeatedly in this report, however, the size of a person’s welfare cheque often has less to do with the cost of living and more to do with the willingness of governments to foot the bill.
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