Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a question following up on the Premier’s statement on Junior Kindergarten made yesterday in the House.
Yesterday the Premier committed to “reach out to all other education authorities, Aboriginal Head Start, licenced daycare and home operators” in their consultation regarding Junior Kindergarten.
I am sure the department of ECE would say they have already done this, but what will be different this time around? Will the Aboriginal Head Start and the other leading, successful phase four program operators be taking a lead role in the communities where they are active and ensure their significant… How will we ensure their significant input in JK? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that as part of their review we will be meeting with the Aboriginal Head Start people to determine how best to move forward. At the request of the Members, we will be approaching each of the communities. My expectation is that those 10 communities that have Aboriginal Head Start, even though they are federal programs and federal money that is slated to expire in 2016, that for those communities that have Head Start and don’t want a junior kindergarten, we will accommodate them. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier. I have become aware of several complaints from teachers and parents regarding areas of concern, as have other Members: one teacher in a classroom with 23 pre-Grade 1 students, tension between existing programs, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, and some of these are actually three-year-olds until Christmas. These are happening now and these concerns have been brought to the attention of headquarters in ECE; however, the response has been to pass the issue on to the local school, yet this is a territorial program. JK is a territorial program delivered locally.
Will the Premier ensure that this situation is looked at immediately and that the process is in place to deal with these complaints effectively and report back to the House before session ends next Thursday? Mahsi.
As we committed to, this will be part of the review. I have offered each of the MLAs some of our senior management to meet individually with each of the MLAs so that we can hear more details about the concerns. We will be working with the DECs in every region and we have said that for those communities that want to opt out right away, we will accommodate them. Thank you.
Because this is so important, I am going to repeat. I think the Premier was busy when I made this question. What I’m saying is these are very serious complaints out there right now. Unsupervised three and four-year-olds. Very serious to communities, very serious to parents and so on.
Will the Premier ensure that there is a process in place to deal with those complaints effectively? Also, will he deal with them and get back to this House by next Thursday on what’s being done about this situation? Mahsi.
We are always watching out for the best interests of our children. We take these concerns, complaints, very seriously and we will be looking into them on an immediate basis. It would be helpful if the Member could share some of his very specific concerns with us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for that. The addition of a school year to the existing staff who are not trained in the specialty of early care and education is unfair to both teachers and young children.
Will the Premier commit to ensuring a plan and implementation to develop a team of dedicated early care and education personnel with the specialized skills required to properly deliver the early childhood programs they need? Mahsi.
Having trained educators or trained people working with these children is very important to us and we have been taking steps in that regard already. Through the review, we will further work to improve in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
