‘Early learning is essential’

The minister said one of the biggest challenges of rolling out this program is recruiting enough early childhood educators (ECEs) to fill these spaces.

“Boards have begun the hiring process, we’re on a very tight timeline here, so we’ve all go to do our very best to make this happen,” Churchill said in a phone interview, adding that there has to be at least two ECE’s in each classroom, depending on enrolment.

Churchill said over 400 parents have pre-registered for the classes already. He said he thinks that’s a very good sign.

“Once this is fully implemented after four years, this will be approximately $50 million a year to implement,” he said. “Right now we’re moving forward with 50 classrooms, at the end we’ll have approximately 250.”

Phase one is expected to cost approximately $4 million, he said.

The main reason why the provincial government is taking this on now is because 75 per cent of the population doesn’t utilize or doesn’t have access to private or non-profit programs like this, he said.

“We know, based on evidence, that pre-Primary programs and early learning is essential to help transition children into an academic learning environment.”

Churchill said the pre-primary program, which has a ‘play-based’ curriculum, will help children adjust to the social structure of going to school.

“We want 100 per cent of our kids to have access to this, if their parents want to participate,” he added.

Churchill said there have been initial conversations with the private and non-profit sector that is currently providing a similar service, at a cost, to parents

“There’s great opportunity for us to work together who are delivering this in the private sector,

Churchill said he’s aware that some parents may have scheduling issues with the program, which will be offered between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

“This is a voluntary, optional program that’s available for parents if it makes sense for them and the plan they have for their child’s learning journey,” he said.

Parents will be required to drop off and pick up their children as no bus service will be provided.

The minister also said that one unintended consequence of this program is that it may stymie the closure of some schools in rural areas.

“The motivation of this not to keep schools open that have drops in enrolment, but the might be an unintended consequence of this, where we can fill up space,” he said. “The intent of this is to have a program in Nova Scotia where 100 per cent of kids have access to this.” it. I don’t know how they’re going to have 50 programs available by September.”

Cochrane said she anticipates the province having difficulty finding enough early childhood educators (ECEs) to fill the roles.

“It’s difficult to find trained ECEs to come in and substitute or fill in when regular staff are away,” she said. “Luckily, we have low staff turnover here, but I know areas like Halifax have a hard time recruiting ECEs.”

She added that she’s concerned that some ECEs may leave private or non-profit daycares if the public positions offer salaries and benefits higher than the usual rate.

“I know in the past we’ve lost a couple of ECEs who went to work with the school board because they offered better salaries,” she said.

Cochrane said she would have liked the province to have worked with the already established private and non-profit daycares to alleviate some of the shortfall in the number of children accessing programs that already exist.

“I’m not too concerned this will impact us, as most of our parents are working and require full day daycare, and this program is only being offered from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,” she said. “Many parents won’t be able to work with that.”