Children are the winners
January 18, 2010
Chemainus Chronicle

It has been awhile since the Ministry of Education has done something to make our school district happy, but it certainly thrilled Cowichan trustees when it announced moving forward with full-day kindergarten….

Meanwhile, kids in kindergarten all day will free up space in our daycares, while filling some of those empty classrooms in our schools.

Our schools are community resources — they should be used.

But the real winners here are the students.

It’s no secret some children start school lacking the basic skills that are expected of kindergarten students, and these are the kids who often struggle through their studies while playing catch-up to their classmates.

Full-day kindergarten means double the time to identify these students and double the time to offer them the supports they need to be successful moving forward….

A few extra hours each day in the classroom and a few more dollars in the school district purse is a small investment that could see big returns in years to come.