WINNIPEG – Starting kindergarten is an exciting time for many youngsters and now a Winnipeg trustee wants to extend half-day kindergarten to full-day, everyday.
“She would love it,” said Lorliee Peters, who picks up her five-year old daughter Emma from kindergarten at Laura Secord School in Wolseley everyday at noon, “She asks me several times a week why kindergarteners only get to go for half a day.”
But that could change if Winnipeg School Division Trustee Mark Wasyliw gets his way.
“If we can get them early, get them the help they need and make sure they don’t fall behind,” said Wasyliw, who plans to introduce a motion for full-day kindergarten and nursery school, starting with a few schools as early as next year, at the next trustee meeting on October 9.
“We have a lot of children dealing with poverty, we have children showing up at our door who only speak 30 words of english,” said Wasyliw.
It would be a costly and challenging investment, something not everyone is sold on.
“I would go for full-day kindergarten but I’m on the fence about all day nursery,” said Angela Water, who has a four-year old son in Nursery School.
Full-day kindergarten has been embraced in Ontario. A recent study found students entering grade one this year were better prepared for school, had strong language development and social skills.
It’s something the St. James-Assiniboia School Division has noticed since 2005 when it introduced full-day kindergarten in six schools.
- N.S. mother ‘in shock’ after enduring 17-hour hospital wait with sick baby
- Tories grill Liberals in question period about minister’s ties to lobbyist, PPE company
- Foreign interference ‘undermined’ public confidence in elections: inquiry
- N.S. parent uneasy as institutions for people with developmental disabilities set to close
“Students who are in full-day kindergarten have an opportunity to be more successful and start off on a really solid foot,” said Tanis Pshebniski, with the St. James Assiniboia School Division.
The province says its focus right now is reducing class sizes to 20 students in kindergarten to grade three and introducing full-day kindergarten would only complicate the process, making already over-crowded schools even more crowded.
“Right now, we couldn’t do this today we have schools that need to be built bigger,” said Wasyliw.
Wasyliw says the division would have to find the money in its budget and would not need the Province’s blessing to go ahead with the plan.
If Wasyliw gets enough votes to move this motion ahead, the division will study whether it’s viable and when financially it could be rolled out.
Wasyliw would like to see all of the division schools move to full-day kindergarten in five years.
Comments