Liberal pre-primary announcement leaves more questions than answers

Concerns remain about staffing, ratios, logistics

HALIFAX – Today’s announcement from the Liberal government about the pre-primary program being launched this September leaves families and child care providers with more questions than answers.

The new program will run during school hours, but there is no indication that four-year-olds will be eligible for before- and after-school care. Pre-primary students will also not be permitted to ride the school bus.

“The structuring of this program means that working parents will have to arrange care before and after school hours, including drop-off and pick-up,” said NDP Education and Early Childhood Development spokesperson Claudia Chender. “This is not feasible for most parents, especially with few options for wraparound care.”

The adult-to-child ratio in the program will be one to ten, a change from the one-to-eight ratio that is the standard in day care centers.

“How can parents be assured that their children will be adequately supervised, and that the sites will be suitable for children as young as three and a half?” said Chender.

Registration for the program starts today, but the availability of the program will be contingent on staffing. Existing child care centres have said that based on their experience with hiring, it is unlikely that there are enough licensed personnel to staff these programs.

At today’s announcement, Minister Churchill admitted there has been no analysis done regarding the availability of staff. He also said the government will begin consultations in August.

“The time for consultation was months ago or more,” said Chender. “Now, families and child care providers are left to scramble to figure out their plans for September. This is another instance of poor judgment and top-down decision-making from the Liberal government.”

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