Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share some exciting news about the rollout of junior kindergarten that will begin in the fall of 2014. There has been much discussion on how we are implementing junior kindergarten, and we carefully considered comments and concerns raised by education boards on the rollout of junior kindergarten.
Mr. Speaker, we put the decision to education boards and gave them a choice of whether they wanted to implement junior kindergarten in the fall of this year, or defer it to next year.
I am pleased to announce that of the 29 small communities who were offered the chance to implement JK this September, 22 have chosen to say yes to junior kindergarten implementation. Of the seven communities that chose to defer for a year, four of these are the communities in the Tlicho region. While the Tlicho Government fully supports junior kindergarten, it has chosen to defer implementation to 2015 because it is considering its own early childhood legislation and wants to consider a good fit between its early childhood programs and junior kindergarten. Aside from the Tlicho region, only three communities decided to wait another year: Aklavik, Paulatuk and Jean Marie River. In each of these communities, the boards and schools felt they were just not ready to deliver junior kindergarten this fall, and we respect that choice.
Mr. Speaker, it is great news for the Northwest Territories that free, optional, play-based junior kindergarten will be introduced in 22 communities this fall. Then in 2015-16, junior kindergarten will be introduced in the remaining small communities as well as Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith. In 2016-17 Yellowknife comes on stream, and junior kindergarten will be available in every community in the territory.
Mr. Speaker, as I have said before in this House, junior kindergarten is the right thing to do. Right now 10 of our smallest communities have no access to early child care programs. These communities in particular will get a real benefit from having junior kindergarten delivered in established and safe places: our schools. It will be taught by
trained teachers with specialized junior kindergarten in-service training and will use a play-based exploratory curriculum. Our junior kindergarten teachers will continue to undergo training to ensure they meet the needs of our early learners. As I have said before, junior kindergarten is not about children in desks, this is about giving children the tools and ability to discover, imagine and learn.
Mr. Speaker, as we roll out junior kindergarten, there may be some growing pains. But we have learned from our junior kindergarten pilot sites. At one of these sites, some children weren’t initially ready for junior kindergarten and others had to be introduced slowly. But they learned and adapted, and within a few months, all of the four-year-old children in the communities were attending. We have learned from this experience. In fact, we are already hearing that those schools that have offered junior kindergarten have made incredible strides: they are seeing more confident, socialized children that are engaged and learning and, most importantly, having fun.
Mr. Speaker, I have also met with the chairs of YCS and YK1 on Tuesday. The meeting was very productive and we agreed to get our respective staff to meet and go over the junior kindergarten implications for both school boards. The meetings between staff have taken place and I am advised that they are now in the process of finalizing their analysis. I will report back with the facts on the implementation of junior kindergarten for the two Yellowknife education authorities.
We know that we have moved very quickly on this, but we heard, loud and clear, that we weren’t doing enough for our children. Feedback from surveys, meetings and roundtables in the last 18 months specifically directed us to investigate early learning programs for our children.
Mr. Speaker, delivering a quality early childhood program in these 22 communities this fall will not just benefit those communities, it will benefit the territory as a whole. As territorial leaders, we should recognize that everyone benefits from investments in our children, whether that’s in Yellowknife, regional centres, or our small communities. We need to give our children, no matter where they live, the best programming we can offer “right from the start.” Mahsi.