N.L.'s pre-kindergarten pilot 'doomed to failure' unless it gets an overhaul, advocates say

Education advocates in Newfoundland and Labrador say the pre-kindergarten pilot program being rolled out by the province isn't backed by research — and won't do much to fix the child-care crisis that currently has parents in a chokehold.

Erin Cullen, a parent of two and a member of the advocacy group ABCs and ECEs N.L., says she's tried to find daycare spots for her kids since before their birth.

Trying to get them into a pre-kindergarten placement, she says, hasn't been any easier.

"It just feels like a continuation of more struggle for us. It's going to be more waitlists," Cullen says.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced the pilot in 2022 as part of its Early Learning and Child Care Action Plan, aiming to create 3,100 regulated spaces for four-year-olds across the province by next fall. Unlike junior kindergarten in other provinces, which is rolled into the public school system, the Newfoundland and Labrador model pays the YMCA to operate the pre-kindergarten centres out of select schools.

Full-day placements are supposed to become available to all four-year-olds across the province by 2025-26. But the most recent official update from the province came last July, when Education Minister Krista Lynn Howell refused an interview on how the pilot was progressing. Instead, the department sent a statement at the time saying the pilot was under constant evaluation and would be expanded "soon."

Fifteen months later, Howell is continuing to dodge questions from media about the pilot. Since Monday, the Education Department has not made anyone available for an interview after several requests from CBC News to answer pressing questions about the program.

Cullen says due to radio silence from officials, she's still wondering where those hundreds of children are going to go next fall and who's going to teach them. 

It's left her confused and frustrated by a government move meant to make life easier for parents.

"Where is this going to go?" Cullen said.

"Where are we as a province? Is this coming, and should we plan on it?"

Lack of transparency only part of the issue, advocate says

David Philpott, a retired Memorial University professor who's been advising the province on its education system for over a decade, says the lack of communication to parents is only a small part of the problem.

The model itself, he argues, needs an overhaul.

The pilot as it now stands is "child care, not kindergarten," Philpott said — a program operated by a third party for a fee, that uses a different curriculum than the one implemented by NLSchools.

"Nowhere else in the country do you have to pay for it."

It's also not the junior kindergarten model he recommended in 2017 as part of an education task force, he adds.

Philpott points to Nova Scotia, which adopted full-time junior kindergarten several years ago, as a success story Newfoundland and Labrador should follow. 

He said parents love that program. 

"They describe the children as happy at the end of the day, and they outline all the benefits that children get from this. Boosted language, boosted social skills, boosted behaviour, more contentment. And it's a part of the school community," he said. "It's not a separate licensed child care. It is, children start school at four years of age, and the school is responsible for them and draws them into the community."

Introducing junior kindergarten as part of the normal K-8 system, he says, would all but solve the daycare crisis.

"If we plucked the four-year-olds out of the early years programs and put them into the schools, we would create infinite space. We literally would create thousands of desperately needed spaces," he said.

"They're not following the lead of the rest of the country.… It's doomed to failure."

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