Program aimed at inner-city students in Saint John extended through 2024

An initiative aimed at helping students at seven inner-city schools in Saint John overcome learning barriers is set to extend through 2024.

New Brunswick’s government announced Monday that $3 million had been earmarked to extend the When Children Succeed project for another two years.

The project, which launched in 2018, looks to provide intensive in-class support to students in kindergarten through second grade, “closing the education achievement gap by the time students complete Grade 3,” a government release said.

Members of cabinet, including Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder and Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Dominic Cardy, joined project chair Roxanne Fairweather and Anglophone South superintendent Zoe Watson to announce the funding to a gymnasium full of first-graders, as well as community partners.

“There are children who enter kindergarten significantly behind their peers, which creates a significant barrier to their success,” Holder said.

“This project is closing that gap and we are proud to provide support to build on the early success of this program.”

Information provided by the provincial government shows there are about 700 kids considered to be part of the When Children Succeed program.

“We are incredibly proud of the work the team at the Anglophone South School District has put into this project at the local level and the early results they have achieved,” Cardy said.

He went on to say the project will continue to help give some of the province’s “most vulnerable students a stronger foundation that will help them with academic achievement and graduation and to achieve their full potential as citizens.”

The seven Saint John schools involved are:

• Seaside Park Elementary School
• Glen Falls School
• Princess Elizabeth School
• Centennial School
• Prince Charles School
• St. John the Baptist / King Edward School
• Hazen White-St. Francis School