4-year-old kindergarten groups, which can have up to 17 children, are too large, especially when it comes to disadvantaged backgrounds, complain teachers and school administrators consulted by the Ministry of Education.
In a report on these classes published recently by the Ministry, we read that the question of the number of children per class is a “major element” raised in focus groups.
“Several have pointed out that the ratio for 4-year-old kindergarten should be the same as that for early childhood centers (CPE), that is to say 10 children per class. Others estimate that an ideal ratio could vary between 10 and 14 children”, writes the Ministry.
The testimonies quoted point in this direction.
At 17 students, we put out the fires. We don’t have time to do things professionally.
A respondent from a Ministry of Education focus group
“Sometimes, we enter classes of 17 children with enormous needs, then we say to ourselves: “Ayoye!” You know, in CPE, there are 10 […]. It’s still funny that, for the same age group, the same government [mette] two different ratios,” notes another.
The Ministry of Education writes in this report that it does not know how many 4-year-old kindergarten teachers there are in the province.
“Assuming that each class had a teacher, it is possible to estimate that 58.4% (814/1394) of the teaching staff of kindergarten 4 years responded to the survey”, we read.
The creation of 2,600 of these classes in four years was a flagship promise of the Coalition avenir Québec when it was elected in 2018. The delivery of these classes was finally postponed to 2029-2030, in the event that the CAQ harvests a third mandate.
Lack of support for children with special needs
The implementation of 4-year-old kindergarten aims above all to act early in the children’s journey to improve their educational success.
However, nearly 60% of teachers felt that they lacked the resources to support children with special needs.
They deplore the lack of psychologists, psychoeducators, remedial teachers, speech therapists and occupational therapists.
“In many settings, requests for these services must be sent to the health and social services network as part of the Act early program. However, according to the teaching staff, requests for services often go unanswered or lead to long waiting times.
As a result, some teachers feel “helpless”. “Others deplore the fact that we can ‘sell’ parents the idea that 4-year-old kindergarten will offer services to children who need them, when this does not correspond to the reality on the ground,” writes Quebec.
Among the 4-year-old kindergarten teachers consulted by Quebec, four out of ten consider that the time of the “additional resource”, a person who helps them in class, is insufficient.
“Most of the time, there are students who have great needs [propreté, difficultés de langage, difficultés motrices, s’habiller seul, comportements violents, etc.]. In past years, I had 16 or 17 students with a part-time resource and it was extremely stressful and difficult,” said one of them.
“When it is said that we have support from an additional person, it should be real. I know there is a lack of staff everywhere, but initially I was supposed to have 15 hours a week and, in the end, it is very rare that the person is there (often I do not see them all week), ”wrote another.
Poorly adapted schools
Primary schools, which increasingly welcome 4-year-olds, are not all adequately equipped to receive them, we also note in this report.
Among the problems are “lockers and washbasins that are too high, chairs and tables that do not correspond to the size of the children, toilets that are sometimes far from the classroom, rooms that are too small for the development of play areas”.
Nearly 40% of teachers believe that they have “an insufficient number of books in their class”. The same proportion say they lack equipment for outdoor games and more than 60% find that the schoolyard is not equipped for 4-year-old children.
“This is an important issue, since the Preschool Education Cycle Program advocates outdoor games,” writes the Ministry.