Kindergarten overhaul proposed by Liberals
Prince George Citizen
February 15, 2008
By: Frank Peebles

The provincial government would like parents to have all-day kindergarten for four-year-olds by 2010 and for three-year-olds by 2012.

Education Minister Shirley Bond said Thursday it would be a bold step.

She said the plan would do three main things: utilize free space in schools to cover the decline in student populations; it could give families a new day-care option; it could put children onto an education path that could make B.C. graduation results the envy of the world.

The plan is being put to a feasibility study that will be finished by the end of the year…

Bond admitted the plan, if it goes ahead, would be costly up front.

Curricula would need to be established, classroom resources identified, purchased and distributed and early-childhood educators hired.

She said counterbalance money would then be freed up in other ministries.

"According to a very new study by the Vancouver Board of Trade, for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the province would save $17 in future social costs," said Bond, Prince George-Mount Robson MLA.

"When I look at how we are going to improve the success of student outcomes in B.C., I have become increasingly convinced that the answer lies in early education. This is also, though, about freeing up families to make choices."

Those choices might be, for example, to give a child already enjoying a book-friendly or art-friendly or fitness-friendly home another place to hone their aptitudes. At the extreme opposite end of the spectrum, it could also be a positive open door for children who live in hostile or negligent homes and put them on the same path to life-long learning.

Bond said it would be an option for parents and the three- and four-year-olds would not be mandated to go to school.

"We don't have to look at these the same way as what five-year-old kindergarten looks like," Bond said. ….

"We recognize the importance of tools for learning in the early years of a child, while not diminishing the options already out there," Bond said. "Instead, we want to provide whatever optional tools we can for families so our young people succeed and have the adulthoods and full lives we all strive for and hope for our younger generations."

The details of how preschool kindergarten classes would roll out will not be determined until the results of the feasibility study are known.