There will soon be extra support for newcomer students in P.E.I. who are learning English as an additional language (EAL).
Education minister Jordan Brown announced Wednesday a new annual investment of $2.8 million to hire 41 new educators to meet the growing needs of EAL students in the province.
Brown, who first made the announcement in legislature before attending a press conference at Colonel Gray High School, said the investment will help newcomer students acquire language skills, add functional language programs and address classroom composition while also reducing class sizes.
While the initiatives were largely focused on EAL students, Brown said the investment will help all students and teachers.
“Because when we hire educators to work with newcomer students, it means existing teachers have more time to focus on the needs of all students,” said Brown.
In the past decade, P.E.I.’s number of EAL students has more than quintupled from 367 to 1,882 with most of those attending school in Charlottetown and the surrounding area.
Because of that, Brown said much of the funding will be targeted in Charlottetown and Stratford schools.
By the Numbers - What the $2.8 million education investment will go towards
- 10 class composition teacher positions to alleviate pressures on schools. These include two at Colonel Gray and one at Charlottetown Rural to add sections in large classes, one position at Queen Charlotte to add homeroom support and support for English language arts classes, two positions at Spring Park to add support for English first language students and a half position at both Stratford Elementary and Glen Stewart Primary to add support English language arts classes.
- Eight EAL mobile teacher position to add functional language programs and provide ongoing support at Birchwood, Stonepark, Queen Charlotte, Colonel Gray and Charlottetown Rural.
- 20 EAL education assistant positions to support EAL students with high needs.
- Three EAL mobile youth service worker positions to support students with the transition to a new school and culture.
- Materials and technology to support translation and literacy for new language learners.
- Support for teachers who are new to teaching new language learners.
Colonel Gray principal Dominique Lecours believes the additions will be a great support for the school.
“We have a large population of EAL students and we embrace them all,” said Lecours. “And we really appreciate that support that will be coming.”
However, not all were impressed with the announcement.
Georgetown-St. Peters MLA Steven Myers said the funding did not address overall class sizes. He also criticized the province for focusing on the Charlottetown area.
“While it’s hard to complain about a 2.8-million-dollar investment into teachers, this is the government that cut 100 teachers already,” said Myers. “There are lots of other needs in education besides what’s happening in Charlottetown.”
Myers also said the government’s priorities were off, pointing to overcrowding in Stratford schools.
“There are kids in hallways learning now. There’s no room in the Stratford schools for students, let alone more teachers.”
Green party leader and Kelly’s Cross-Cumberland MLA Peter Bevan-Baker said he was happy to hear the announcement and said it would help student-teacher rations.
“It’s a small step, I grant that, but we have to give credit where credit is due,” said Bevan-Baker. “I’d love to see you go further though minister. I think there needs to be an emphasis on the early years here on interventions, before children develop problems that make it very difficult for them to recover from in later life.”
The new positions will be in addition to 27 teachers announced last spring and the 15 educational assistant positions hired last year.
The funding for the investment came from the department of economic development and tourism, which is also responsible for immigration.
Minister Heath MacDonald said with much of the province’s recent population growth coming from immigration, hiring more teachers is a necessary part of building a foundation for those newcomers.
“We’re growing through immigration but we have to provide support and we recognize that,” said MacDonald.
