Public consultations on N.W.T. junior kindergarten to follow $150K review

After spending $150,000on a review that asked 460 people what they thought about the Northwest Territories' junior kindergarten program, Education Minister Alfred Moses says public consultations on the same topic will start in the next few months.

The review, which was released last week, was ordered by the last Legislative Assembly after a territory-wide rollout of the program was halted over concerns about things such as how it was being funded, and whether it was duplicating services offered by other organizations such as Aboriginal Head Start and private daycares.

"It outlines some of the challenges that did put a pause in the program," Moses said of the review.

He says the most crucial recommendation from the review is to talk to people in communities, to see what they want from junior kindergarten.

"We don't want to tell schools and communities what to do. We want to hear from them."

No surprises

One of the groups Moses will be hearing from is theYellowknife Catholic School Board. The superintendent of the board, Claudia Parker, says there were no surprises in the review.

"I think the government is heading in the right direction in regards to talking about collaboration,"says Parker.

"One of our key things is making sure that it doesn't involve further cuts in other programs in order to implement JK [junior kindergarten]. We have always had the strong message that we believe there has to be new funding in order to make JK move forward."

Parker says shehopes the government finds funds for the program soon, so she can get junior kindergarten in her schools as soon as possible.