Liberals consider full-time kindergarten
Vancouver Sun
February 13, 2008
By: Janet Steffenhagen

The Liberal government has signalled interest for the first time in full-day kindergarten for all five-year-olds and suggested Tuesday it will also consider extending the program to three- and four-year-olds in future years.

The first step will be the creation of an Early Childhood Learning Agency to investigate the cost and feasibility of offering full-day K to all five-year-olds, the government said in its throne speech.

Now, only aboriginal, English-as-a-second-language and disadvantaged five-year-olds are eligible for full-day schooling, while other children attend kindergarten for half days only.

The agency will also look at the possibility of extending the program to four-year-olds by 2010 and three-year-olds by 2012. A report is expected within the year. Although the proposal is new, Education Minister Shirley Bond said the interest in early learning is not.

"We recognize that investment in those early years is ... critical to a student's success," she said in an interview. "If we want to look at improving completion rates for aboriginal and non-aboriginal [students], we recognize that the earlier the investment is made, the more that's going to pay off."

Before making a decision, government will discuss the issue with parents, and Bond said she expects to hear mixed views.

The throne speech also promised 316 new StrongStart centres over the next two years, in addition to the 84 already open. These centres offer drop-in services for pre-school children and parents to help them get ready for kindergarten.

The B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and the B.C. School Trustees' Association welcomed the interest in full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds. Jim Iker, BCTF second vice-president, said the union has been calling for such a move since 1990 and he urged the Liberals to act now rather than wasting time with a study….