Full Day Kindergarten

The Drummond Report recommends canceling the implementation of the Full Day Kindergarten program as a means of cutting costs.  With the expected full implementation cost expected to pass the $1.5 Billion mark it is understandable why that recommendation would be made.  Drummond also concedes in the report that the program is unlikely to be scrapped so offers a few different alternatives to save some money.

The program is expected to be fully implemented by 2014 – 2015.  The Drummond Report recommends delaying full implementation to 2017 – 2018.  The report also recommends changing the staffing model extensively as another cost saving measure.  The current kindergarten model involves one teacher and one Early Childhood Educator (ECE) in a classroom of up to 26 students.  Drummond recommends changing this to one teacher to 20 students. 

If this change is brought forward, the essential characteristics of the Full Day Kindergarten program will be lost.  Charles Pascal wrote a report regarding the efficacy of the full day learning model and the benefits have been shown in other studies as well.  Part of that benefit is gained from the pairing of an ECE and a teacher working cooperatively.

We need to keep the program, but we also need to implement some changes.

I would increase the current student / teacher ratio to 28 to 2.  I don’t know how much money this will save the program overall but it might be worth looking at as a possible strategy in some schools where this would allow for one fewer kindergarten classroom. 

The big change I would like to see implemented is, where possible, schools include a child care centre in them.  I would encourage these child care centres to have spaces allocated for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.  This would allow for the seamlessness that many people are talking about as being advantageous to the students. 

Parents that need child care for their children would have only to travel to the local elementary school.  This would allow for a child to remain in one physical location from birth to grade 6.  There would be a significant reduction in anxiety that shows up when moving children from one centre to another.  The other benefit is this would allow for juggling staff between the kindergarten classroom as well as the daycare centre.  The children would be familiar with the staff already as they have spent their preschool years with these staff members.  Again, the seamless integration of a daycare centre in the school setting will benefit the student.

This set up would also allow for before and after care programs to be offered in a seamless fashion.  Parents would not need to worry about transporting children from one location to another or try to arrange for an alternate care system.  It would allow for schools and the daycare centre to maintain child care ratios as well as provided the required breaks for staff throughout the day. 

Given that I am suggesting a couple of changes be investigated and then implemented, I am in favour of the program implementation being slowed. 

I would implement daycare centres in those schools that are currently under enrolled.  Utilize the space for the creation of a daycare centre and then roll out the full day kindergarten the next year.  Your oldest preschoolers would be your first class of full day kindergarten learners and it really would be a seamless program at that point.

The daycare centres themselves would operate on a not-for-profit basis.  The money parents would pay would be going back into the public school system and benefit our children for years to come.  How could that be a bad thing?