Free daycare for 4-year-olds, intense English in Grade 5-6

New education-linked measures would cost $2.8 billion over the next four years

ST-FÉLICIEN Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard kicked off Monday with a slew of education promises, pledging free daycare for all four-year-olds, a teaching assistant in every pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classroom, and to increase the age students will be required to stay in school or vocational training to 18 if they haven’t yet graduated.

All four-year-olds will be offered an equivalent level of education whether they are enrolled in daycares or pre-kindergarten classes at school, Couillard said.

As well, the Liberals, if elected, will ramp up offerings for intensive English lessons in French elementary schools in Grades 5 and 6, which involve students spending half their year learning in English.

Most of the promises had been presented in the last year by the Liberals. Monday ’s announcement made them “formal engagements,” Couillard said. In total, the new measures would cost $2.8 billion over the next four years.

“Our government has brought education back to the top of the agenda, as it should be, as a complete, integrated vision of education, starting with an early action plan for children aged 0 to 8,” Couillard said in the schoolyard of an elementary school.

Couillard made the announcements in his riding of Roberval in the Saguenay-Lac- St-Jean region, where polls indicate he could be facing a tough battle.

He said he would not be taking part in a candidates’ debate in the riding because his accomplishments there during his first term speak for themselves, “and debates, I already have plenty of them.”

There will be three leaders’ debates during the campaign, the first on Sept. 13. Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée will take part in a candidates debate in his riding.

Couillard praised the fact there will be an English-language debate in these elections, and said they would persist.

“Once we have it for this election, there’s no way it’s going to go away. Each election is going to have it in Quebec now.”

On education, the Liberals pledged:

Free education for four-yearolds, ■ be they in pre-kindergarten or government-run daycares. Employees at daycares will receive education materials and training sessions, or the daycares could receive trained educators. The rollout will take four years, starting in September 2019 and costing $250 million a year.

Because of the new education ■ component, responsibility for the government-run daycares will be transferred to the education ministry and away from the family ministry.

A second educator will be added ■ to every pre-kindergarten and kindergarten class over four years. The assistant could be a second teacher, a teacher’s aide or psychologist, or whatever the school requires. The program will cost $1.1 billion. They will need 5,600 people to fill the posts.

Students will have to remain in a ■

“learning environment” until the age of 18 or until they obtain their high school leaving certificate or other form of diploma. Schools, work-training programs, internships and other forms of non-traditional schooling are included. It will cost $107 million per year.

More access to accelerated English ■ courses in Grades 5 and 6 for French schools that request it, at a cost of $7 million per year. At present, two per cent of Grade 5 children and 17 per cent of Grade 6 students receive the enriched curriculum.

In the afternoon, Couillard’s Liberal caravan headed to La Tuque, 300 kilometres north of Montreal, for a photo-op at a local delicatessen and a meeting with local politicians, before turning south for his second foray of the young campaign into the Mauricie region, which the CAQ has said it intends to sweep.

He was there to watch the Aigles de Trois-Rivières baseball team take on the Rockland Boulders of Pomona, N.Y., in the Can-Am league, and throw out the first pitch.

Couillard admitted to a few nerves.

“I used to have a decent curve ball as a youngster, and a fastball. But that was a while ago.”

Couillard pitched. A bit high, a bit inside, but it made it to the catcher. He looked relieved.