TORONTO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — Some 35,000 kids, about 16 percent of the eligible junior and senior kindergarten students in Ontario’s educational system will be offered full-day learning next September, announced Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty on Tuesday.
“By giving our kids an early start in school, we’re setting them on the road to success and building a stronger Ontario for us all,” Mcguinty said.
According to the plan announced Tuesday, four- and five-year-olds will learn under the guidance of a teacher and an early childhood educator. Parents may also enroll their child for extended hours for a reasonable fee, before and after regular school hours. This will make it easier for parents to get to and from work and will ensure their children have an integrated learning program for the whole day.
The plan will make Ontario the only place in North America that will offer full-day learning for all four- and five-year-olds.
But the goal is to have the program fully implemented in all schools by 2015-2016 that will put it behind British Columbia, which plans to introduce full-day kindergarten for all five-year-olds by 2011.
McGuinty had previously warned that it could take more than three years to implement the plan.
Ontario has set aside 500 million Canadian dollars (about 476 million U.S. dollars) over two years to phase in optional, all-day kindergarten, despite a deficit that’s expected to reach 24.7 billion Canadian dollars (about 23.5 billion dollars) this fiscal year.
Similarly, British Columbia plans to spend 151 million Canadian dollars (143.8 billion dollars) to start up its all-day kindergarten for five-year-olds next year.
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec offer all-day kindergarten for five-year-olds. Ontario has part-day kindergarten for four-year-olds, but school is not mandatory until Grade one.
(Source: xinhuanet.com)