Full-day kindergarten students more prepared for Grade 1: province
Posted September 3, 2013 1:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Students who have successfully completed full-day kindergarten are more prepared for Grade 1, according to a study released by the province on Tuesday.
The study was conducted by Queen’s and McMaster universities from 2010-2012.
“Full-day kindergarten is working,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said at Toronto’s Ogden Public School on Tuesday.
Researchers found that students who had completed the program had less risk in language and cognitive development at the junior kindergarten level, dropping from a 16.4 per cent risk to 4.3 per cent.
At the senior kindergarten level, students had less risk in communication skills and general knowledge development, dropping from 10.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent.
The risk in social competence development also dropped from 10.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
The study looked at 693 children – 52 per cent girls and 48 per cent boys – from 125 participating schools.
Of those students, 258 children were enrolled in full-day kindergarten for two years, 210 had one year of senior kindergarten, and 225 children had no exposure to full-day kindergarten.
The program was first rolled out four years ago, and is expected to be in all elementary schools by September 2014.
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