Opinion: Some big questions surround pre-primary rollout – The Chronicle Herald

September 6, 2017

The new school year is almost upon us and over the course of September, four-year-olds (and some three-year-olds) will begin pre-primary programs at 43 public elementary schools.

While the pre-primary program is welcome news for many parents, given the current cost of full-time child care ($800-$900 a month), the program seems to be rolling out with little consultation and limited forethought.

Prior to this spring, the government’s approach to expanding access to pre-primary education was largely limited to the gradual expansion of Early Years Centres (four centres opened in 2014-15 and 4 more opened in 2015-16). Evaluations of those programs supported the position of most educators and specialists that quality early-years programs are a major factor in school preparedness; however those same evaluations raised important questions about hiring and program accessibility. If it was difficult and time-consuming to hire local qualified early childhood educators for those eight new programs, why should we believe school boards will be able to hire qualified staff for more than 20 new programs this year alone?