Educators optimistic about early learning expansion
Nanaimo News Bulletin
By Jenn Marshall
March 04, 2010

Early educators in Nanaimo are cautiously optimistic about government promises to expand early learning opportunities.

The throne speech delivered last month, prior to the Olympics, spoke of new partnerships with the private sector and parents to establish neighbourhood preschools for three and four year olds over the next five years.

The goal is to provide B.C. families with new voluntary options for public and private preschools close to where they live….

Elizabeth Pennell, Nanaimo school district’s early years coordinator, ….“We have a lot of families in Nanaimo who can’t afford to put their children into programs,” she said. “It could be a good news story if children were coming into a public system where there’s lower cost for care.”

More than one-quarter of Nanaimo students enter kindergarten unprepared to learn and the provincial average of vulnerable children is about the same….

But there’s also a severe shortage of early childhood educators, Rai said, so government would need to put funding toward the programs so businesses can afford to pay staff a decent wage.

“We don’t seem to retain them in the field,” said Rai. “They just can’t live off the wages.”