The province met with P.E.I.'s kindergarten teachers over the weekend to talk about the degree program they will soon need to complete in order to move into the public school system.
Up until now, child-care centres ran kindergarten programs on the Island, and child-care workers only needed to complete a two-year diploma program.
Kindergarten teacher Charlene Rogers is facing two more years of training in a modified bachelor of education program at the University of Prince Edward Island in order to keep working with kindergarten children.
"I don't have any concerns about it because this is the age group that I chose to work with, five years and under," Rogers said Wednesday.
The usual prerequisite for a bachelor of education degree in P.E.I. is a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree, but this requirement has been waived for child-care workers. They must complete a two-year bachelor of education program at the University of Prince Edward Island by 2016.
But not all teachers are feeling as comfortable. Some have questions such as what grades will they be certified to teach after getting a B.Ed., and will their accreditation be accepted in other provinces.
"We're trying to prepare them with a degree which meets the needs of P.E.I. That's as far as I'm going," Tim Goddard, dean of education at UPEI, said Wednesday.
"Should they then choose later in their career to go somewhere else, until somebody tests it, we don't know how it's going to work out."
The province has suggested teachers with UPEI's special bachelor of education be allowed to teach up to Grade 3. But a final recommendation will have to come from the Standards and Accreditation Board, and it won't make a decision until summer at the earliest.
Job interviews wrapped up in January, but teachers still haven't been told what schools they'll be teaching at, or if they have been given one of the jobs up for grabs.
Rogers said she isn't anxious about the future.
"No. It'd be nice to know, but I understand they're giving us information, as they know it," she said.
via www.cbc.ca
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