Province rolls out first phase of pre-primary program

https://www.localxpress.ca/local-news/province-rolls-out-first-phase-of-pre-primary-program-673580

Jul 18, 2017 1:15 PM by: Francis Campbell

Space and need.

Those are the determining factors in the province’s pre-primary program for four-year-olds.

“This is a first for us and we know based on our evidence how important pre-primary programming is,” Zach Churchill, the minister of education and early childhood development, said Tuesday morning in making the long-awaited announcement that 50 public early education sites will be established for the upcoming school year.

“This is going to help our children transition into an academic learning environment, will help them socialize in that environment and we know that it will have outcomes that will impact their lives.”

Thirty of the sites will be new and 20 others will be rolled over from programs that school boards have already put in place.

“The criteria we used to identify these sites as a priority for Phase 1 is that we needed space available, we needed to know that there was a need in the area and we also tried to focus this round on areas where there isn’t a current provider delivering the service.”

The 50 sites will be located in 43 schools and space will be available to any four-year-olds in those areas.

“The spaces are based on enrolment projections that we have. The spaces will accommodate the needs in those areas. We believe that we have enough space for all the four-year-olds that will fall under those catchment areas.”

The minister said only 25 per cent of four-year-olds in the province are enrolled in private pre-school programs now but at the completion of the four-year public rollout, he said every child will have access to a program.

The public program will not be mandatory but will be available to parents who want to take advantage of it.

“This is contingent on staffing. Every one of these sites will be staffed by a professionally trained early childhood educator. That is something we need to make sure we do before these sites are officially opened.”

Pre-registration for September began on Tuesday and parents can register their children on the department website or by calling toll-free 1-833-424-2084.

Churchill said government will absorb an additional cost of about $700,000 to accommodate the spaces announced Tuesday, a cost that will be added to the initial $3.7-million estimate.

The minister said the program will provide jobs for early educators in the schools initially announced and in those schools that will add programs over the four-year rollout. The educators will provide learning and care for the children on a one-to-10 ratio, less stringent than the one-to-eight ratio now required in private daycares.

“Health and safety and quality are our top concerns. We believe that (ratio) will provide a healthy, safe, quality environment so long as we have the professional staff to operate it.”

He said changing the ratio for daycares is an option that he will be discussing with private operators.

Claudia Chender, the NDP representative for Dartmouth South and her party’s education critic, said in a release that the ratio change for pre-primary is problematic.

"How can parents be assured that their children will be adequately supervised, and that the sites will be suitable for children as young as 3 1/2?" Chender said.

The minister admits the program will cause problems for private early childhood education providers who will be losing students.

“We are bringing in a new government-funded free universal pre-primary program. There is going to be an impact on the private sector. We have to be honest about that," he said.

"What we are trying to do in Phase 1 is mitigate the impact by focusing on areas where there is a need for these services. Moving into Phase 2 we are going to be having a robust consultation with our private providers to identify market potential for them, to see if there are opportunities for them on the before- and after-school programming. We are actually going to be doing a consultation with parents as well to see what their needs are.”

The program will run during normal school hours but there has been no indication that four-year-olds will be eligible for before- and after-school care, Chender said.

"The time for consultation was months ago and more," she said. "Now, families and child-care providers are left to scramble to figure out their plans for September. This is another instance of poor judgment and top-down decision-making from the Liberal government."

Nikki Jamieson, a mother with a child eligible for the pre-primary program in September, said in the same NDP release that the program should have been rolled out earlier in order for parents to make timely and appropriate decisions.

“Most families need to have a plan for their children in place months in advance,” Jamieson said. “There are so many questions. Why isn’t the government talking to parents?”

The individual school boards will determine the pay rate for the early childhood educators working in their boards.

There will be no busing for four-year-olds in the foreseeable future.

“Our focus right now is making sure that this program is implemented and staffed,” Churchill said. “This will be a very similar experience to what parents have now with daycare or their current early-year centres. They will be required to drop their kids off and pick them up.”

Gary Adams, superintendent of the Chignecto-Central regional school board, said in a government release that the pre-primary program is vital in promoting the combined role of home, school and community in a child’s development.

“The pre-primary program supports this goal and will complement the strong efforts of our staff,” Adams said. “Students in our board and across the province should benefit greatly from this program and we look forward to welcoming our pre-primary children to the school community in September.”

Parent Jessica Wolstenholme said the Jubilee Elementary early education program in Sydney Mines helped her children grow socially.

“It helped them meet other children they will be going to school with and build friendships,” Wolstenholme said. “It’s wonderful for children to be introduced to the school setting in a play-based way that is not as structured as school.”

Churchill said a standardized curriculum will be put in place for all the pre-primary classes, a list of which is available on the department website.

“This is not an academic curriculum,” the minister said. “This is a play-based curriculum for pre-primary and we do have curriculum framework that will be required to be implemented in every one of our classes.”