NEW TEACHERS TO HELP NEWCOMER STUDENTS
Province announces hiring of 41 educators with focus on helping newcomer students
There will soon be extra support for newcomer students in P.E.I. who are learning English as an additional language (EAL).
Education Minister Jordan Brown announced Wednesday a new annual investment of $2.8 million to hire 41 new educators to meet the growing needs of EAL students in the province.
Brown, who first made the announcement in legislature before attending a press conference at Colonel Gray High School, said the investment will help newcomer students acquire language skills, add functional language programs and address classroom composition while also reducing class sizes.
While the initiatives were largely focused on EAL students, Brown said the investment will help all students and teachers.
“Because when we hire educators to work with newcomer students, it means existing teachers have more time to focus on the needs of all students,” said Brown.
In the past decade, P.E.I.’s number of EAL students has more than quintupled from 367 to 1,882 with most of those attending school in Charlottetown and the surrounding area.
Because of that, Brown said much of the funding will be targeted in Charlottetown and Stratford schools.
Colonel Gray principal Dominique Lecours believes the additions will be a great support for the school.
“We have a large population of EAL students and we embrace them all,” said Lecours. “And we really appreciate that support that will be coming.”
However, not all were impressed with the announcement.
Georgetown-St. Peters MLA Steven Myers said the funding did not address overall class sizes. He also criticized the province for focusing on the Charlottetown area.
“While it’s hard to complain about a 2.8-million-dollar investment into teachers, this is the government that cut 100 teachers already,” said Myers. “There are lots of other needs in education besides what’s happening in Charlottetown.”
Myers also said the government’s priorities were off, pointing to overcrowding in Stratford schools.
“There are kids in hallways learning now. There’s no room in the Stratford schools for students, let alone more teachers.”
Green party leader and Kelly’s Cross-Cumberland MLA Peter Bevan-Baker said he was happy to hear the announcement and said it would help studentteacher rations.
“It’s a small step, I grant that, but we have to give credit where credit is due,” said BevanBaker.
“I’d love to see you go further though, minister. I think there needs to be an emphasis on the early years here on interventions, before children develop problems that make it very difficult for them to recover from in later life.”
The new positions will be in addition to 27 teachers announced last spring and the 15 educational assistant positions hired last year.
The funding for the investment came from the department of economic development and tourism, which is also responsible for immigration.
Minister Heath MacDonald said with much of the province’s recent population growth coming from immigration, hiring more teachers is a necessary part of building a foundation for those newcomers.
“We’re growing through immigration but we have to provide support and we recognize that,” said MacDonald.