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Education
May 19, 2011

The following statement was read today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Joan Burke, Minister Education:

Partnership with Public Libraries Promotes Early Childhood Programming

Hundreds of four year olds in the province are now proud owners of two children’s books, thanks to a new partnership between the Department of Education and the Provincial Information and Library Resources Board, which administers Newfoundland and Labrador’s public libraries.

The children are participants in KinderStart, a school transition program offered to all children in the year prior to Kindergarten. They were given a coupon to visit their local library and receive their first book and a library card. On their return visit, they were presented with a second book.

Eighty-six per cent of our population lives within 24 kilometres of a public library, which is quite remarkable for a province with our geography. In areas where the distance is greater, the books were mailed to their homes.

The overall goal of this $75,000 initiative is to provide children throughout the province with quality literature, as well as to promote storytime and early literacy programming offered through public libraries.

This program has been a great success to date. As one mother said, “My son will be a better reader than I am. He wants to come to the library every day now.” That is the kind of reaction we were hoping for and we certainly intend to continue this initiative next year with two new book selections.

Early childhood learning is a priority for our government. In Budget 2011, we announced a commitment of $4.8 million over the next three years to begin implementation of our early childhood learning strategy, Learning From the Start, with an initial focus on children from birth to age three. The goal is to give every child the best possible start in life, and a strong foundation for their future development and learning.

2011 05 19                                                                           1:55 p.m.

 
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