N.W.T. pledges $2M in new funding for revamped junior kindergarten rollout

The Government of the Northwest Territories has backed off on a demand for schools in the territory to offer junior kindergarten without any extra funding.

Officials from the Education department announced details of the new junior kindergarten rollout plan on Monday.

"We are going to invest or infuse the education system with $2 million [annually] in new funding," said Olin Lovely, the assistant deputy minister responsible for the project.

"We are looking to the education authorities to fund $2.6 million internally through a reallocation of the resources we provide them."

Another $3.4 million will be coming from the territory to pay for renovations to existing school facilities.

The news comes after a nearly two-year pause in bringing junior kindergarten classes to N.W.T. schools. Right now 19 of 49 public schools offer junior kindergarten.

The program stalled after the initial rollout in 2014 due to concerns about how it was being funded, and whether it was duplicating services offered by other organizations such as Aboriginal Head Start and private daycares. An external consulting company was hired to study it.

• N.W.T. schools to offer junior kindergarten with no extra cash
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"Any way we can strengthen early childhood education, from prenatal to five years old, worldwide research will tell you that's the best bang for your buck," said Rita Mueller, an assistant deputy minister with the education department.

She said research in the N.W.T suggests 53 per cent of children in the communities without junior kindergarten are falling behind on basic social skills.

Mueller said the goal is to cut that number in half to reach the Canadian standard of 25 per cent.

Significant improvement

John Stephenson, chair of the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 board, said its schools have been offering a user-pay program for four-year-olds for years and that a transition to full junior kindergarten would be a "positive move."

"Our number one concern has been the funding," he said.

With this announcement, Stephenson said the funding formula has "improved significantly." He said the new $2 million in annual funding for junior kindergarten indicates "the government has heard us but there's still a significant cost to N.W.T. school boards." 

Reallocating existing school funding to junior kindergarten would likely result in fewer teachers for other grades, he said.

He said school board chairs at a recent meeting agreed they support junior kindergarten but still think the government should provide full funding for it.