PEI: Speech From the Throne – 2010 – Education & the Early Years

Investing in our Future: Education

Addressing today’s economic fundamentals through measures like the Energy Accord is absolutely vital.

However, my government is also exceedingly cognizant of the need to prepare Islanders for the future.

The world is changing rapidly – and the best response to that change must be a modern education system.

In the past year, historic changes to our education system have been introduced. These changes are well-considered, and follow a deliberate and focussed plan.

In September of this year, Island schools welcomed 1,400 kindergarten students into the public system.

Simultaneously, my government established a provincial early learning system for children aged birth to four – and 36 Early Years Centres opened their doors across our Island to almost 1,500 of our youngest children.

I am extremely pleased that these measures have vaulted our Island into a leadership role among Canadian provinces – providing Island children
and families with an early childhood system that is accessible, inclusive, equitable and high quality.

This major step forward in the evolution of our education and early learning system took a great deal of shared planning and careful implementation by all partners. The smooth transition speaks well of the hard work and outstanding collaboration and cooperation of all partners – including the early childhood sector, the school system, parents, and my government.

In support of many of these improvements, the Early Learning and Child Care Act will be introduced this fall. And my government will continue working with the early childhood system to develop and open up to 14 additional Early Years Centres – further increasing province-wide access.

In addition to improving programs for our youngest Islanders, my government is also modernizing our school system to prepare our children for the 21st century.

Ultimately, the key measure of educational success is the success of our students.

Over the past three years, schools, educators, and families have worked together on a range of measures to improve student learning and engagement – increasing literacy resources and programming, enhancing special needs supports, and developing and expanding measurement and assessments. These efforts are beginning to reap results, with strong improvement in Grade Three reading and writing outcomes.

Over the coming year, my government will increase its focus on improving student learning and outcomes in the intermediate and secondary school system to better prepare our children to enter and succeed in post-secondary learning and in the labour market. In June 2010, my Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development hosted a widely attended Summit on Learning to explore how we can best help our children and youth to achieve 21st Century Outcomes.

My government will continue to engage education partners in exploring and building on those ideas and new directions.

Teachers have always and will continue to be the heart of the learning experience. Despite declining enrolment, my government has increased teacher numbers over the past three years – and is maintaining teacher resources at the current level for both this school year and the next.

These measures have taken Prince Edward Island to one of the lowest student-teacher ratios in Canada – and further improvements will be achieved next year as enrolment continues to decrease. Over the coming year, increased emphasis will be placed on examining and planning for the human resources needed to continue improving our learning outcomes and supporting our children with special needs in the years ahead.

With regard to infrastructure, a process of renewal is underway, with the recent openings of Montague Senior High School, Stratford Elementary, and new kindergarten wings at several

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