It’s been more than two years since the B.C. government first mentioned a plan to offer preschool for three- and four-year-olds as part of its drive to improve literacy provincewide, but parents still know little about what’s in store.
While the Liberals insist they’re committed to offering the service, they’ve refused to divulge details, except to say they want to work with the private sector to open neighbourhood preschools in the next five years. An Education Ministry spokesman said plans will likely be unveiled later this year.
For now, the ministry’s focus is on its rollout of full-day kindergarten, beginning this fall when spaces will be available in public schools for half the province’s five-year-olds. By September 2011, full-day kindergarten is expected to be an optional program in every school, replacing the half-day program.
The government’s silence, meanwhile, about its vision for preschool is feeding worries among those who don’t want to see three- and four-year-olds in school. Some insist that public money should be spent instead on high-quality child care, which is in short supply.
“We agree with all-day kindergarten [for five-year-olds], but we have to work really hard to keep it play-based and child-centred,” Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, said in an interview. “Before [age] five, we should have high-quality, accessible child care. That should be the priority.”
Sharon Gregson, a child care advocate and Vancouver school trustee, agrees. She said the term “preschool” generally refers to programs that are offered a few times a week for a couple of hours a day, and Vancouver already has an abundance of such services. What’s desperately needed is full-day, quality child care, she said, noting that those facilities have massive wait-lists. “Working parents don’t need part-time, part-day service,” she added.
While congratulating the government for acknowledging the importance of early learning, Gregson said it’s well past time the Liberals explained where they’re heading rather than simply dropping vague comments about early learning in two throne speeches and a budget and leaving the public in the dark. “It’s so difficult to know what the heck they’re talking about,” she said.
After first mentioning full-day kindergarten and preschool in February 2008, the government struck an internal agency to review the issue, consult the public and report back. It found broad public support for full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds, but mixed views about sending three-year-olds to school.
Although the agency said it was clear that pre-kindergarten programs are intended to be “play-based, holistic and developmentally appropriate,” many still expressed concerns that the programs would be too academic and too structured.
Teachers share that concern, Lanzinger said.
The key ingredients of any preschool program, according to the early-learning agency, are choice, quality and staged implementation that will allow proper preparations. The benefits for children include improvements in reading, writing, math, social development, work habits, motor skills and performance on standardized tests, its report says.
The agency suggested that new preschools could involve existing preschool and child care providers and said parents should be offered early learning with wraparound child care.
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Charlottetown, The Guardian – Kindergarten transition underway
Kindergarten transition underway
TERESA WRIGHT
The GuardianIt’s a major undertaking but the transition of kindergarten into the public school system on P.E.I. is well underway, says Education Minister Doug Currie.
Department staff has been busy over the past several months putting in place a number of key components to make Island classrooms and educators ready for kindergarten beginning in Island schools in September.
Many major tasks have already been completed, including the registration of students and the assignment of space for kindergarten in all schools.
More than 1,200 students have been registered at schools across the province for kindergarten this fall.
“I’m very pleased with the progress of the transition at this point,” Currie said Tuesday.
“I’ve got to be honest, I’m very excited about the work that’s going on. The thing that I’m most excited about is that we’re going to have five-year-olds for the first time in the history of this province who are going to have the same opportunities of every other five-year-old in Canada.”
To accommodate the over 1,200 new students, 50 new school buses have been ordered and bus routes are being developed. It is anticipated there will be an adequate number of child safety seats on school buses for children who weigh less than 40 pounds.
Classrooms are being prepared and formatted for play-based learning. Rather than rows of desks, there will be activity tables, computer centres, learning stations and soft floor space. Kindergarten furniture, equipment and supplies are being ordered now so that classrooms will be equipped by the fall.
Teachers already in the school system are also being prepared for the new, younger students entering their schools.
Sessions on play-based learning and the kindergarten curriculum have been held for over 300 department and board staff, school administrators and Grade 1, resource, music and phys ed teachers.
More sessions will soon be offered for school counsellors, teacher librarians, Grade 2 teachers, specialists and support staff.
But kindergarten instructors are still in limbo. Early childhood educators (ECEs) were given priority for the approximately 110 kindergarten teaching positions that are now available.
The department has interviewed and selected the necessary number of ECEs for the jobs, and they have all applied to UPEI for a special bachelor of education program developed to enable them to obtain their degree over a six-year period.
But school boards can’t offer these ECEs positions until the P.E.I. Teachers’ Federation changes its collective agreement with the province. The federation has a policy not to release details of its contract negotiations.
Teachers’ Federation president Carrie St. Jean would only say they are ongoing.
“We’re still in negotiations with government to get a settlement,” St. Jean told The Guardian Tuesday.
“Until we have an agreement, they can’t do anything. And right now that’s where it stands. We’re
very anxious for that to get settled but it isn’t settled yet.”
Once the federation has an agreement, all teachers in the province must vote on whether to accept it.
Currie said he is confident in the overall progress of the kindergarten transition but said the job is far from over.Initiatives:
Here are some of the kindergarten transition initiatives that will soon be offered to parents and incoming students:
— All children registered for kindergarten this fall will take part in an assessment of their developmental skills. It will indicate how well children are developing in self-awareness, cognitive skills, language and communication, and gross and fine motor development. The half-hour assessment will be adm
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