LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Over the coming weeks the Dehcho Divisional Education Council expects to learn whether schools in the region will continue to offer junior kindergarten.

Dehcho Divisional Education Council Superintendent Terry Jaffray says she hopes the local education authorities in the region decide to keep offering junior kindergarten. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo

The local district education authorities are expected to meet soon and discuss whether to continue with the early education program for children between four and five years old, said superintendent Terry Jaffray.

An announcement that the wider roll-out of the program across the territory has been halted means school districts already offering it have three choices, she said.

They can decide to immediately end the program, they can continue until the end of the school year and then end it, or continue as is.

"I'm hoping people will decide to carry on," she said, emphasizing the decisions will be made locally and not by her.

She believes the GNWT initiative is key in regions, such as the Deh Cho, because small communities have limited, or non-existent, early education programs to offer children before entering school.

She pointed out how a child develops by the time they are six years old has a profound impact on the rest of their school career.

While some children can catch up with help from teachers if they fall behind, others won't.

"Our students, particularly in small communities, are not prepared for school," she said.

She referred to data from pre-school entry screenings which show about 25 per cent of children across the country are not considered ready for school based on factors such as social, emotional, physical and academic development.

In the territory, the screening process shows that figure to be around 33 per cent.

"That's one of the biggest reasons I think we need (junior kindergarten)," she said.

She's been visiting the junior kindergarten classes and said she's noticed so far that children are socializing better than they did when school began and attendance has been steady.

"The kids are wanting to be there," Jaffray said.

The choice on whether to continue the program follows a speech by Premier Bob McLeod on Oct. 30 in the legislative assembly in which he said implementation of junior kindergarten in September 2015 in regional centres, including Fort Smith, Hay River and Inuvik has been halted.

As well, the GNWT will study the program over the next eight months in the 23 communities that now have junior kindergarten.

"I was surprised," Jaffray said about her reaction to the announcement by the premier.

She had been following the news as MLAs raised concerns and had been reading what was said in the legislative assembly.

Funding for the program was to be "re-profiled" by the various education authorities from existing budgets and the addition of junior kindergarten meant hiring only one additional teacher, Jaffray said.

That one position is in Fort Simpson at Bompas Elementary School, where there are discussions underway about opening the wall that separates the two junior kindergarten classrooms.

There are 13 to 16 junior kindergarten students at that school.

Fort Liard has about 12 junior kindergarten and kindergarten students. They're being taught together in what was the school's library.

The library books were moved to another space to accommodate the combined class of youngsters.

In Fort Providence, Jaffray said a successful Aboriginal Head Start program has continued. It runs for half a day, with the children then attending junior kindergarten for the other half of the day.

Louie Norwegian School in Jean Marie River didn't offer junior kindergarten this year because there were no eligible students.

In Trout Lake, there were not any eligible students, but come next school year, Jaffray said there will be five.

In the smaller communities, the students are usually integrated in classes with older peers.

Jaffray said the biggest issue with the junior kindergarten roll out in this region was getting appropriate classroom resources to schools.

The GNWT did provide $15,000 per junior kindergarten classroom to buy extra things such as chairs, sandboxes or books.

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