The Ontario Liberals’ plan to introduce full-day kindergarten, which will help give our kids the best start in life, help busy Ontarians who are juggling work and child care responsibilities, and save families money, Premier McGuinty said today.

“Many parents find themselves juggling the demands of a busy career with the responsibility of raising young children, so places where kids get quality care are particularly important to moms and busy young families,” said the Premier at the Debbie Yeung Child Care centre at Woodgreen Community Services.

“Moving to a full-day of kindergarten will help our kids succeed in school down the road, save families time and money and free up thousands of licensed child care spaces.” …

Full-day kindergarten also helps academic achievement in later grades.

A recently published report in the Heinz School Review showed that vocabulary scores in children who attended publicly-funded pre-school were 31% higher than children without the program; math skills improved by 44%; and print awareness by 85%. The study also found that, in order to obtain these favourable results, the child must spend a minimum of 3 1/2 hours in the preschool, five days a week.

“Full-day preschool is good science,” said Margaret McCain, co-author of an important study on early years education. “Preschool is when children develop the emotional and social skills needed to succeed in school.” …

Source: CNW Telbec, Canada
http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/September2007/21/c3779.html