Full-day kindergarten considered
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, November 7, 2016
NUNAVUT
Masiva Pewatoalook thinks full-day kindergarten is a great idea.
Masiva Pewatoalook of Pond Inlet, with daughter Emerald, 5, and son Phoenix, 2. - photo courtesy of Masiva Pewatoalook |
"Especially for parents who work or go to college full time," said the Pond Inlet mom with a son Phoenix, 2, and a daughter Emerald, 5. "Being a single mother and being in college trying to look for a babysitter is kind of hard so I think it would help a lot if kindergarteners go to school full time."
It's an idea Education Minister Paul Quassa has asked his staff to look into.
"We've been looking at it for a number of years from the perspective of student learning and development, looking at it as a means of helping students in the territory improve their retention in school and early learning outcomes within the K-12 system," said assistant deputy minister John MacDonald. "But we've been looking at it in earnest since we received the recommendation from the special committee to review the Education Act."
And now Quassa has doubled down. He expects concrete costs, per school, by the end of the fiscal year.
Nunavut has 28 kindergarten classrooms, with about 800 kindergarten-age students. Each one of those classrooms may or may not be easily adaptable to the switch from a half-day to a full-day for so many five-year olds.
"How much is this going to cost from a building or space perspective? Staffing, programming, supports for students, all of those," MacDonald said.
Is it looking realistic? Quassa wants to think so.
In the legislative assembly Oct. 28, he answered Quttiktuq MLA Isaac Shooyook's questions on the quality of education in the territory. As he outlined several initiatives and factors that influence outcomes, he mentioned full-day kindergarten.
"We are currently reviewing the issues as to whether to proceed, as it would also benefit our daycares, especially with the limited spaces in our local daycare centres and with some communities having no daycares," Quassa said. "It will definitely assist the kindergarten students if they took classes for the entire day."
MacDonald says based on speaking with Education staff, principals and other employees, there is "a tiny number of existing spaces or schools that could just readily switch over."
Some schools have a kindergarten class and kindergarten washroom set up but there may be too many five-year-olds in the community.
"Because of the half-day program, half those students would be going in the morning and they would flip and the other half would go in the afternoon. So you'd have to double your space capacity," said MacDonald.
"The primary impediment is the capital cost, which is not surprising because the cost of building anything in the North is prohibitive in some cases."
The department will be working with Community and Government Services to fulfill Quassa's request for scenarios and costs for every school.
The department has also begun to look at academic benefits, especially from an isolated, rural indigenous perspective.
MacDonald says the full-day program is becoming more common across the country.
"Most jurisdictions seem to be moving in that direction, if they haven't already. The literature seems to be showing there are benefits."
MacDonald says if the GN decides to move forward, it would likely require a phased approach.
"We're under the gun to a certain extent because Minister Quassa said, 'By the end of the fiscal year come back to me with concrete analysis and projections.' Our minister and his colleagues will need to understand how long is this, how much is it going to cost, and are the benefits, from an educational and a social perspective, sufficient to warrant that cost and investment."
