Educators and parents are applauding the B.C. government's announcement this week that it will bring all-day kindergarten to all schools by 2011.
But some wonder whether the $151 million dollars the province has set aside to carry out the program will be enough.
"Frankly, I think it's a bit surprising that the government is going ahead with it," said Irene Lanzinger, president of the BC Teachers' Federation. "It will be difficult to implement by next September. It requires the hiring of teachers, the planning for space and resources."
Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says it can be done.
"We may be looking at some portables, some moving around of students," she said. "So there's some places that are good to right this minute and other places will have to develop some resources."
Meanwhile, some parents in West Vancouver, one of a handful of school districts that offers a user-pay all-day kindergarten, are ecstatic over the news.
Currently, about half the parents in the district opt for all-day kindergarten, which costs them $410 a month.
The superintendent of the district says by offering it free to all parents, the government is leveling the playing field.
"Well, I think its great social policy frankly," Geoff Jopson said. "Investing in early childhood development has great long term benefits for the citizens of this province and certainly for those children."
Under the province's plan, half of the province's five-year-olds will be eligible for all-day kindergarten starting next year, and the remaining half will have access in 2011.
It hasn't been determined yet how the province will decide which children are eligible first.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
