Anonymous donor from France gifts $25K to P.E.I. francophone daycares

Staffing shortages at Island francophone daycare centres have been well-documented for years, with lobbying efforts for pay increases still underway — but no one expected an anonymous donor from another country to step in and try to help.

"He's from France," says Kathleen Couture, of the anonymous donor, who has asked to be referred to as "Dadou."

Couture is executive director of L'association des centres de la petite enfance francophone de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard (Association of Early Childhood Education Centres of P.E.I.), and said the donor has no connections to the Island but has a passion for helping Acadians.

"He's done a lot of history researching, and realized the troubles and tribulations of Acadians in P.E.I., especially in the education area where they cannot find enough educators to fill these spaces and allow (French-speaking) children access to French education."

The anonymous donor has given Couture's association $25,000 to help address the staffing shortage in French daycares, and worked with her to come up with a plan for the money: five signing bonuses at $4,000 each to certified ECEs willing to return to work at francophone daycares.

Couture said even with the recent wage increases announced by the province, it's still not enough to attract people to the position and retain staff.

"They need to look at dollar amounts, they need to look at $3-$5 dollars more an hour, not $0.30," Couture said.

We know there are people out there who are sitting with this certification, we just want them to come forward and apply.- Kathy Couture

Right now, early childhood educators island-wide make about $15.30/hour. There are staffing shortages in English and French centres across the province, but francophone educators are the hardest to recruit, as French-speaking Islanders represent a relatively small portions of the population. And that leads to long wait lists for French daycare centres: 200 families in the Charlottetown area alone. Couture said that means francophone children often end up in anglophone centres during their most formative years for language acquisition, and tend to continue their education in English as they get older.

"It's frustrating and sad," said Couture. "It is very sad that children cannot have the education from the ages of 0-5 in the language that they would like to have."

Adina Nault, an early childhood educator at the Centre de la petite enfance l'Île enchantée in Charlottetown, said she knows families with Acadian heritage who haven't been able to access early childhood education in French, and their children find it harder to try to pick up the language as they get older.

"It makes me sad," Nault said. "Especially when I know that the children could speak French but I have to speak with them in English because the fact is that they were not able to get here and they've grown up going to an English school."

Nault has friends and former colleagues who have either left the ECE field, or found work in another province where wages are higher. She's hopeful that the signing bonus will make a difference for recruitment, as better-staffed daycares would lighten the load for everyone. But she said recruit will always be a problem as long as wages remain low.

"Even just a couple dollars would make a world of difference," Nault said.

"A big part of it is recognizing that we are underpaid. We work very hard and sometimes we work very long hours and I do tend to take my work home as well, and for $15.30 an hour sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it."

Even just a couple dollars would make a world of difference.- Adina Nault

Kathleen Couture believes Island ECEs are some of the lowest paid in the country. She knows the signing bonus isn't going to fix the problem. But she's hopeful that it will appeal to people with the right certification who have left the education system, and give them reason to reconsider the career.

"We have really high hopes that people are going to come out and apply for this," Couture said. "Right now, in the province, there are between 40-50 ECEs who have left the field in the last 2-5 years. We know there are people out there who are sitting with this certification, we just want them to come forward and apply."

Once successful candidates have been selected, the signing bonus will be doled out in $1,000 increments, every 6 months over a two year period.

Couture said the anonymous donor has plans to continue supporting early childhood education and his next donation will go toward staff retention. She said the man plans to visit the Island this fall.

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