Submission #2503

“To make a lovable school, industrious, inventive, liveable, documentable and communicable, a place of research, learning, re-cognition and reflection, where children, teachers and families feel well – is our point of arrival.”
Loris Malaguzzi
In light of the recent announcement of cutbacks to the commitment for funding for Pedagogical Support Educator, I feel a need to add my voice to the rising chorus against this decision.
The importance of the role of this person within early learning centres on our island cannot be understated. The Pedagogical Support Educator is a cornerstone position, and is a critical to the care and education of our Island’s children.
Over the last number of years, the province of Prince Edward Island has demonstrated leadership with early childhood care and education in Canada. With the development of the PEI Early Learning Framework, educators have a model to aid them with documentation of children’s development. The recently introduced AQI Tool (Assessment for Quality Improvement) is a tangible tool for goal setting and implementation and works towards best practices for children, educators and families in our centres.
When I saw the addition of Pedagogical Support Educator being an integral part of best practices for Early Childhood, I truly felt that our sector was honoring the “point of arrival” for the rights of children. The Pedagogical Support Educator provides time and space for childhood to unfold naturally; and bridges the space for scaffolding children’s development through observation, protagonist dialogue, and documentation that makes learning visible.
Funding to support all families to choose early learning for their children is now possible and tangible. Many Island Child Care Centres have heavily invested in expanding the number of program spaces, to help meet the needs of island families. To properly support the growth of available spaces and educating all Island children, more qualified early childhood educators need to be hired.
With expansion of early learning programs, Holland College has been working to deliver the necessary skills for employees to work towards certification. But, they only have so many spaces available, and the program takes so many years. They cannot deliver as quickly as is needed to have certified staff working in all centres, especially in rural communities.
The Pedagogical Support Educator provides a mentoring, supportive, and modeling role that supports the children, early childhood team and families. The role reflects the needs of the individual centre.
I just returned from an intense period of study at the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, Reggio Emilia International Study group in Italy. 365 educators from 48 different countries around the world participated in learning more about the pedagogy of early childhood education that is familiarly known and renowned as the Reggio Emilia Approach.
I was proud of Prince Edward Island at Reggio Emilia when I was at the International Study Group there in April 2026. I can see PEI is weaving the threads of best practice into the work of early childhood care and education. Reggio Emilia is world renowned as leader in pedagogy for early childhood. One of their cornerstone roles in centre programs is the pedagogical support position.
When I was flying home from Italy, the announcement to funding reduction to pedagogical support was made in legislature.
Prince Edward Island has potentiality of being a leader in early childhood care and education. There are many gaps and loosened places where the infrastructure of early childhood is working hard to meet the needs of demand. At this robust time, extraordinary work that the sector is putting into meeting the continuing demands placed on documentation of children’s learning and best practices, while training a workforce that is worthy of its children, about 25% of funding is cut.
In my role as pedagogical educator, I got to know all the educators and the children, because I was able to relieve the educator in each area, to do their documentation. In that space where I became a support staff, I became part of observation/documentation/programming with the children and educators. I also got to know what families were inquiring about. It became a rich place of connecting the team and family wonderings in a way that supported them and did not put extra weight upon the staffing unit. It was something I could contribute to the well-being of everybody.
Having a pedagogical support educator is a cornerstone to their programs at Reggio Emilia. It is not an add- on. It is not something that is taken away because of budget. In fact, government celebrates the important work that the “pedagogistas” are to the team and speaks with knowledge and intent of the “living work” that evolves from this position.
In Reggio Emilia, I learned about the rights of the child and the work Reggio Emilia is doing together with Save the Children. I discovered that society has become its most fragile socially/emotionally for children since before the second world war. And Reggio Emilia is making informed decisions about their responsibility for children. In a world that has become fragmented and challenging, let’s be a soft place for children to land. When our educators are well, our children are well, our families are well, then our communities are also well.
In a time where we can make decisions on the well-being of children, let’s make them. If there is something that we, the sector, can be doing better, let’s do that.
The period of birth to 5 years of age is a critical time in brain development and social/emotional development. Each Prince Edward Island child derives full opportunity to move forward and develop with the full underpinnings of a supportive early childhood environment.
The Pedagogical Support Educator is a cornerstone to the foundation of childhood. The Pedagogical Support Educator animates life and well-being for children, the people who care for them and the families they serve.
This position should not be looked at as a privilege for our early learning system, but a fundamental right for children, their families and the people who care and learn together with them.
Sincerely,
Wendy Waite-Snow