Choosing Between Full or Half Day Kindergarten
Does Full-Day Schooling Improve the Quality of Education for Kids?
Jun 28, 2009
The Ontario government has proposed to implement a full-day kindergarten program set to take place in 2010. The full-day program is believed to raise the quality of education for children as well as alleviate the pressures that parents currently undergo with the half-day schedules of their kindergarten-aged children. Education experts, day-care providers, and private school operators disagree about whether full-day kindergarten is the right solution to improving the quality of education for children.
This proposal calls for combining daycare and kindergarten into one full-day program and will also allow parents the option of sticking to the current half-day system.
Advantages of Full-day Kindergarten
According to Pascal John Campbell, chairman of the Toronto District School Board, the largest school board in Ontario, this proposal will be applauded by parents. Campbell believes that working parents and sole parents will benefit from having their children in full-day schooling. "With so many households where you have two working parents or if you have a single-parent family where the sole parent is working, they're already looking for these kinds of solutions," he stated in the June 15, 2009 CBC article "Ont. Premier doesn't Know Cost of Full-Day Plan for Kindergarten Students."
Education expert Charles Pascal, the former Canadian deputy minister of education also believes that the move to full-day kindergarten will benefit both parents and children. In the same CBC article Pascal stated "A lot of parents are right now running all over the place trying to patch together services they need for their kids and their families." A recent report by Pascal also revealed that more than 25 per cent of children are "significantly" behind their peers when entering Grade 1. According to this report, children who have attended full-day programs before Grade 1 fare better academically and have better social skills.
Disadvantages of Full-Day Kindergarten
On the other end of the spectrum, opponents of the proposal do not believe that the quality of education will be improved by a full-day kindergarten program. Montessori school operator Michelle Charette, owner of two Montessori schools in Windsor, Ontario fears that if implemented, this proposal would mean the loss of children from her schools. "Some parents would continue on with Montessori, but I fear we would lose most of our children," said Charette in the June 17, 2009 Windsor Star article "Full-Day Schooling Plan Worries Daycares."
Penny Willis, a co-owner of a Montessori school in LaSalle Ontario, believes that quality of education is high enough in Montessori. In the same Windsor Star article she stated "Children are in schools long enough. I just think this [Montessori] atmosphere is better for them."
American child development expert Dr. David Elkind, a professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts, USA believes that many parents may find the full day program inappropriate for their young children. “Full day programs cost money and school budgets are tight." The concept of parents' choice between half and full-day kindergarten is one that seems integral according to Dr. Elkind. "Perhaps the best solution, and one taken in some communities, is to offer both full and half day programs and to insure that the full day programs are of the kind that are most in keeping with five-year-old's levels of ability and of energy."
Kindergarten Remains Parental Choice
Regardless whether or not the proposal to implement full-day kindergarten will succeed or not, parents will remain the decisive body, as the government has already stated that half-day programs will remain intact. The disagreement on whether or not full-day programs will actually improve children's quality of education is apparent amongst experts and education operators alike.
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