Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Dominique Arbez. I am a professor and the coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program.
Personnel training is a key element to ensure the quality of early childhood services. In Manitoba, The Community Child Care Standards Act requires a ratio of trained personnel. The Early Childhood Education program of the Technical College at the Université de Saint-Boniface has existed for over 25 years now. This two-year training program leading to the ECE II classification is the only one to be offered in French in Manitoba.
Many of our graduates have become educators in nurseries, preschools, kindergartens and schools. Some of them manage educational daycare centres, others work for the government to ensure that daycare services are well coordinated. Some now teach this same program. It would be hard to measure the impact all these early childhood professionals have on our community, and to determine how many families and children have benefited from the fruit of their work.
We recommend implementing measures to re-enforce the recognition and the value of minority early childhood professionals, in order to help recruit and retain them.
We also recommend more support for networking and sharing opportunities among the various professionals, in order to give them the right tools and encourage their dedication.
In the classroom, we face many cultural and linguistic realities that we try to recognize and include in our teaching. This diversity brings some challenges in the mastery of both official languages. Our required practical internships in French- and English-speaking environments have led to new criteria for language courses. These restrictions, although necessary, have contributed to a drop in enrolment.
We recommend the provision of funds to provide additional preparatory courses for potential students in post-secondary education in both official languages.
We also recommend putting aside funds to recruit potential students, as well as to develop and offer online courses to ensure access to training.
Since we have implemented our second method of receiving a diploma, the accelerated program allows us to provide training to students who have acquired work experience, therefore making it easier to fulfill the personnel ratios as mandated by the Act. Despite the utility of this method of receiving a diploma, we had to significantly modify the offer this year, following a decrease in the amount of available teaching positions. Consequently, our program is the only one that simultaneously offers courses to both groups—those in year 1 and year 2—which has allowed this model to survive.
This is why we recommend that the provincial government guarantee stable funding, despite the limited number of candidates for this training model.
The Advanced Diploma in Leadership in Early Childhood Education is designed for early childhood managers, and was launched in 2008. Unfortunately, it did not receive regular funding. The program was suspended, and, alas, it is no longer possible to receive advanced training in early childhood in French in Manitoba. The Bachelor of Arts-Developmental Studies at the University of Winnipeg, with which we have signed an articulation agreement, recognizes our diploma as the equivalent of 30 credits. For at least five years now, we have been trying to get a similar agreement with the Université de Saint-Boniface. However, even if the discussions are moving forward, the agreement will not be recognized by the province under the ECE III classification.
We recommend that the provincial government provide clear instructions and adequate funding to develop and offer advanced training in early childhood in French.
Unlike us, the other public post-secondary institutions in Manitoba have one or more educational daycare centres that can benefit from collaborative agreements. These agreements give students in early childhood exceptional internship or shadowing opportunities. This is a major obstacle for the francophone community, specifically for families who could benefit from this high-quality centre.
We recommend that the federal and provincial governments approve funding dedicated to implementing a high-quality educational daycare centre on campus, which could serve as an educational model.
We know that the universities and the colleges could contribute to the creation of new knowledge by researching early childhood.
A golden opportunity is being missed with the decision not to move forward with the Centre d'excellence enfant, famille et communauté day care centre. The centre would have facilitated research on early childhood development in minority communities.
We are calling on the federal government to make a larger investment in research on early childhood development in minority communities.
It is clear that French-language early childhood programs in Manitoba are not on equal footing with English-language programs. We therefore ask the committee to support our request for adequate funding for early childhood training in French.
Thank you for listening.