Final phase brings program to all elementary schools

The province has committed a further $17.5 million to finish rolling out pre-primary to the remaining 48 Nova

Scotia schools that had not yet launched the program.

Every four-year-old in the province will have access to the program starting in September, Premier Stephen McNeil said at a news conference held Feb. 11 in a pre-primary classroom at Chebucto Heights Elementary School in Halifax.

"This is a major investment in our children and it's a major investment in our future," McNeil said. "I can tell you I'm proud of a lot of the work our government has done over the last six years but nothing more than this program around pre-primary because we are giving every child the ability to succeed on their own talents and success."

The announcement brings the total spending for the year on the program to $51.4 million for 253 schools.

"The legacy of this project will go on for years to come," McNeil said. "The province will see the benefits of this for decades."

The province also announced the second phase of bus service for the pre-primary program will start in September, as well.

Craig Myra, principal at Chebucto Heights, said there was a noticeable improvement in children who attended preprimary last year, the first that it was offered at the school on Cowie Hill Road.

"It's been a game-changer here at Chebucto Heights," Myra said. "Coming into Primary, all of those students are ready for school."

This year's Primary kids performed better in mid-term evaluations than any in the four years that Myra has been principal at the school, he said.

"Our students are coming in ready to do school right away. So, there's not a transition of students learning how to do school and learning the procedures, they're able to come in and follow those procedures and get to work right away."

Education Minister Zach Churchill said the pre-primary program has the ability to impact the lives of thousands of Nova Scotians, "whether it's the four-year-olds who will benefit cognitively, socially, emotionally and be better prepared to enter school, the single parent who might be able to get back to the labour force and change the economic trajectory of their household or one of the hundreds of early childhood educators who are employed under this program."

Churchill said that the province has a total of about 630 early childhood educators working in pre-primary and they are looking to hire another 250 for full implementation.

He also said some pre-primary sites may require additional infrastructure such as portables to accommodate.

"Our biggest challenge has been keeping up with demand," Churchill said. "People want this program. It's beneficial to the child, it's beneficial to the family, and so our biggest challenge has actually been keeping up with the demand from every single community that wanted access to this and that's why we're so happy to be here today."

Registration for pre-primary has opened.

"Our regional centres of education will begin with our principals communicating directly with every single school community, informing them where the pre-primary site's going to be, how to register and informing them about the availability of busing, as well," said Churchill.