Early Learning Initatives in BC Steeped in Politics
BC misses out on a golden opportunity to get it right from the start
Noel Herron, Teacher:Newsmagazine (BCTF)
November 2007

One-time book hand-outs to pre schoolers. A drop-in program for caregivers masquerading as a genuine ‘Head Start’ initiative. And to top it off the added embellishment of the Minister of Education’s title with the add-on of Minister Responsible for Early Learning and Literacy.

As in the case of Minister of child care, Linda Reid’s recent booster seat for needy families’ fiasco, all of BC’s early learning projects to date are primarily designed for maximum political exposure with minimum educational or social benefits.

Given the new Stats Can listing pointing to the dramatic increase in child poverty in BC and the premier’s own recent progress board report showing that the province ranks near the bottom the social indicators category in Canada (9th out of 10 provinces), the BC Liberals approach to early learning and pre-school programs is nothing short of cynical manipulation.

Just over three years ago the current provincial government wanted to slash the already inadequate provincial funding allocation to school boards for inner city schools, only to be stopped cold by a coalition of angry Vancouver parents, teachers, trustees and community groups.

Out of BC’s 1.1 million households, currently 177,935 are lone-parent families struggling to make ends meet. The fact remains that while one in four children in BC continues to live in poverty Victoria continues to ratchet up whopping surpluses year after year.

This should be of deep concern to the general public.

In order to give the appearance of doing something on the social services and education files this province treats us to a series of superficial gestures and so-called policy initiatives.

Some of these are: photo ops of ministers of education delivering new text books to schools, a minister of child care (including the Premier and Attorney General) handing out booster seats to representatives of disadvantaged kids, plus the ongoing hand-outs of over- the- top press releases proclaiming that the province is becoming the “most literate jurisdiction in North America”.

With early learning in BC it’s quite simply a case of crass politics triumphing over sound educational practices.

The expansion of the Liberals blatantly mislabeled “Strong Start” pre-school program in school districts across the province is the government’s answer to its stated concern in the Throne Speech that, “currently 25 per cent of children (in BC) are not ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.”

Placed under the jurisdiction of local school boards to lend them a semblance of educational credibility, the three-hour-drop-in “Strong Start “centers don’t even remotely resemble genuine head start programs in other Canadian or American jurisdictions.

 The cognitive boost in early childhood programs, so amply demonstrated in long established, genuine, head start programs with well-trained teachers at the helm, have been reinforced time and again in longitudinal studies in the United States (Head Start from 1965) and in Britain (Sure Start from 1997).

With “Strong Start” in BC, stay at home parents (this excludes most of the province’s 170,000 single parent families), or grandparents must accompany their three or four olds to these centers during the day.

In reality these are limited baby-sitting services masquerading as early childhood programs for those able to attend. They are totally divorced from the contemporary working world needs of today’s parents. (The current crisis in the availability of child care spaces for working parents is yet another example of the gap between the real world and government policies).

At the start of the current school year an estimated 8,500 (of the projected 35,000) kindergarten students entered our public schools lacking readiness for regular schooling.

Experienced kindergarten teachers tell us that many of these students have a limited vocabulary, a poor understanding of colour, letters, numbers, sizes, and shapes and are often far behind many of their peers. Their ability to ‘listen up’ and to follow the simplest routines is frequently a struggle for them.

Sadly, their attainment gap widens as many of them advance into intermediate grades.

At the start of the current school year Hillel Goelman of UBC’s Early Learning partnership called for “a pre-kindergarten program that would be available to all BC children” to be put in place.

Across the border recently two leading Democratic candidates for the US presidency, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards joined a chorus of early-childhood education advocates, governors, foundation and social activists promoting the cause of universal pre-kindergarten.

Here in BC when one compares the present faltering and highly politicized early childhood initiatives with solid, long term, national and international programs one quickly realizes how far we have fallen behind other jurisdictions.

And, more importantly, how much we are short changing some of the most vulnerable kids in our education system.

Up to now we have missed a golden opportunity to get it right from the start with our pre school kids.

Noel Herron is a former Vancouver School Board principal and school trustee. He is the author of “Every Kid Counts”, a history of Vancouver’s inner city schools.