Inuvik (Mar 22/04) - Teachers and parents say full-day kindergarten is the way to go.

And the Beaufort Delta Education Council agreed.

The council voted last week to continue with the three-year $3.5 million K-1 initiative pilot project after seeing an improvement in students' academic success.

Sandra Ipana, the Inuinnaqtun kindergarten teacher at Sir Alexander Mackenzie school in Inuvik, said she's seen the difference in her students since starting the K-1 Initiative.

"I think it's great," said Ipana, who has taught the program for two of the three years.

"The children seem more relaxed. We're not always so rushed for time and I can cover more concepts."

Ipana found the former half day kindergarten program didn't give her enough time to teach everything in the curriculum. Now she has students reading at a low Grade 2 level when they leave her class in June.

Parents are seeing a difference, too. Mae Cockney has two children who have already been through the old kindergarten program and two who are in the new one at Sir Alexander Mackenzie school in Inuvik.

"I think it's working really well," she said.

"I didn't expect them to read as quickly as they are."

She's already seen a maturity develop in her five-year-old son.

"I was worried with the full-day, but I think it's working out well."

Meeting the

students' needs

The K-1 Initiative was started in 2001. At that time BDEC felt the current curriculum wasn't meeting the needs of the students and decided to create a special program for kindergarten and Grade 1 students.

The council set aside some funds from aboriginal languages and staffing to finance the project. Now that the curriculum has been developed, the program can operate at a less expensive level and will only require some shuffling in the staffing resources, says the council.

Literacy and numeracy were the focus of the program, as was more training and support for teachers and three years of extra art -- visual, music and drama. Full-day kindergarten was also introduced.

Bill Gowans, BDEC program co-ordinator, recently completed a report about the three-year program, which was supposed to end this June.

"It's really been very successful," said Gowans.

"People want it and are really happy about it."

He found the overall literacy grades in Grade 2 students had swung from barely passing to average. In 2001, 93 per cent of Grade 2 Delta students were average or below in their literacy skills. In 2003, 66 per cent were average and above.

"We were surprised and pleased at the results," he said.

"They were much better than any other Grade and better than any other Grade 2s."

Math needs work

Although literacy improved, there was little change in math marks. Half the students -- 51 per cent -- maintained an average to below average grade in math. In 2001, 53 per cent were average or below.

Gowans recommends exploring alternative teaching methods in next year's curriculum.

"We won't be happy until our students are academically at the same level as the rest of Canada," said Gowans.