Drummond report may recommend changes to education
February 11, 2012
Economist Don Drummond’s recommendations for reforms to Ontario’s public policy to be released on February 15, may include cuts to all-day kindergarten and changes to class size caps.
There is much speculation around the report from the Premier’s adviser, including rumours that he will recommend either cutting or re-formatting all-day kindergarten. Earlier this year, Mr. Drummond did say in interviews that he felt that all-day kindergarten as it was implemented was too expensive.
Charles Pascal, the Premier’s Advisor on Early Learning, had recommended a format for all-day kindergarten that included a half-time teacher working along side a full-time early childhood educator, but the province decided that the program would be more effective if it included a full-time teacher. This did increase the cost substantially.
Capping class sizes in the primary grades has also been a very expensive – and some would say unwieldy – policy. Drummond has pointed out that there is little evidence that across the board class size caps improves student outcomes.
People For Education Viewpoint:
It is highly unlikely that the Premier would cut all-day kindergarten. The program is very popular with parents; teachers and early childhood educators have been working hard to eliminate the “kinks;” and the program is approaching the half-way mark in terms of implementation. Nine hundred schools are scheduled to come on board in the fall of 2012.
But cuts are coming. The province is facing a substantial deficit, unemployment continues to be an issue, and declining enrolment makes it hard to justify continued increases in education spending. But the cuts are more likely to come in areas outside of all-day kindergarten.
There might be some political appetite, for example, for adjusting class size caps. They are not only difficult to administer (particularly in smaller schools), but they are also very costly.
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Education funding in Ontario
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Full-day kindergarten
I'm hoping it's possible to have a discussion about the full day kindergarten program, as proposed by Charles Pascal. Over the last week or so, there's been some response from both the education sector and the child care sector (con and pro) on the issue of having Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) staffing the program with kindergarten teachers...but not so much from individual ECEs, kindergarten teachers, and parents and I am wondering how folks feel about a full day kindergarten program, staffed with a collaborative team of ECEs and kindergarten teachers. View the full discussion.