All-day kindergarten program postponed
Alberni Valley Times
February 23, 2009
By: Quintin Winks

An all-day kindergarten program for three, four and five year olds has been put on hold across B.C., reducing parent's early education options by one.

The move to postpone was announced by Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point in the throne speech prior to the provincial budget announcements last week. The optional program for five year olds was to be put in place, if approved, by September 2009.

Only First Nations parents whose children are enrolled in the aboriginal early learning plan will continue to have access to all-day kindergarten. For most parents in the Alberni Valley, the delay means sending their children to kindergarten all day will have to wait. Exactly how many of those parents are waiting is difficult to estimate, said Stacey Manson, district principal for SD70.

"It would have been a parent's choice, so it's hard to predict how many parents would have taken advantage of that," she said….