Toronto Escort Agency – Nearly 600 Ontario schools will offer full-day kindergarten to about 35,000 four-and five-year-olds starting next fall, The Canadian Press has learned.
Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is moving ahead with the costly program despite Ontario’s unprecedented deficit, will be in Chatham Tuesday to unveil details about the first phase of the plan that’s expected to take five years to fully implement.
At least one school from each board in the province will offer full-day kindergarten starting in September, a government official confirmed Monday.
While McGuinty makes the announcement in Chatham, Liberal members of the provincial legislature will do the same from their ridings, the source said. A complete list of schools that got the green light will be posted online Tuesday.
About 15 per cent of all eligible kids will be able to enrol in the program next September. McGuinty has promised to expand the program to 50,000 kids in 2011.
All four-and five-year-olds should be able to enrol in 2015, at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion a year.
Research shows that full-day kindergarten does benefit students in the long run, said Annie Kidder, executive director of parent-led People for Education.
But it’s just one component of a broader vision to improve education for children under the age of 13, which the government hasn’t talked about, she said.
“We do seem to have picked out one bit, and are implementing one bit of it, and leaving quite a lot of it behind,” she said.
McGuinty, who promised full-day kindergarten during his 2007 election campaign, has set aside $500 million over two years to start up the program.
School boards submitted lists of eligible schools to the ministry in December. Priority is supposed to be given to low-income neighbourhoods, as well as those that have available space and have the greatest need for the program.
But many low-income children may not be able to enrol in the program because their schools don’t have the space and the province isn’t providing any capital funds for renovations, said Opposition critic Elizabeth Witmer.
Full-day kindergarten should be put off until the province is in better financial shape, she said.
“How is he planning to pay for it?” Witmer said.
“They don’t know how they’re going to deal with the $25-billion deficit, plus the increasing debt. Now they talk about selling some of their assets. I mean, it’s obvious that they’re desperate for money.”
The government is sending mixed messages by embarking on full-day kindergarten when thousands of daycare spaces are about to be cut unless the province can come up with more cash, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
“There are children that will be born today that might likely not even see the benefits of this program,” she said.
“The inequity of access I think is something that’s going to concern people. I don’t know that the government has provided a good reason for why there’s going to be haves and have-nots in terms of access to programs.”
Josh Matlow, a trustee with Toronto Escort Agency District School Board – the largest in Canada with more than 250,000 students – said parents are excited about the prospect of full-day learning, but there are lingering concerns about the program’s rollout.
He fears that schools with existing daycare operators, those without extra space or appropriate facilities for young kids won’t qualify for the program next fall.
“The ministry has provided zero capital dollars for this initiative, so it was pretty restrictive,” he said.
Michelle Despault, a spokeswoman for Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, said the government “recognizes” that some schools will require renovations to accommodate the program, but it likely won’t make any funding decisions until the spring.
The full-day program is optional, as school is not mandatory in Ontario until age six, but busing will only be available twice a day at schools that offer the program.
If parents don’t want their children to be in school all day, they will have to make their own travel arrangements at the beginning or end of their child’s day. Or they can ask their school board to switch their child to another school that offers the half-day program, said Despault.
Teachers will take the lead in full-day kindergarten, but will also work with early educators in the classroom.
Class sizes will also increase under the new program, but the government has promised there will be enough funding for two adults for every 26 children. The current provincial cap for primary classes is 20 to 23 students.
Once the program is fully rolled out, parents will be able to pay a fee to obtain childcare before 9 a.m. and after 3:30 p.m., which would be staffed by early childhood educators.
About 18,000 of the more than 240,000 junior and senior kindergarten students in Ontario are already enrolled in full-day learning at a handful of francophone and Catholic schools, which fund the programs by diverting money from other sources.
Ontario currently offers half-day kindergarten for four-year-olds and five-year-olds.
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec offer all-day kindergarten for five-year-olds. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec offer some programs for four-year-olds.
British Columbia is planning to offer full-day kindergarten to all of its five-year-olds by 2011, starting with at least half of its schools next September.
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