Early Learning Initiatives



Government’s vision for British Columbia’s children and youth is that they have the opportunity to be the best they can be physically, socially, intellectually, and emotionally.

One of the commitments of Government’s strategic plan is to ensure that more children are ready for success when they enter Kindergarten.

Offering our pre-schoolers a wide range of early learning experiences can help achieve government’s commitment to make BC the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent.

The Ministry of Education shares responsibility for early learning with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Many community programs for young children and their families have an early learning component.

Early learning is defined as the knowledge, skills and dispositions that preschool children acquire in the years before school entry in key developmental domains: cognitive, physical, language and communication, social and emotional.

Early learning takes place in multiple settings: homes, preschools, child care environments, early learning centres, and other community settings. Children’s early learning is supported by parents, family members, the broader community, early childhood educators, and multiple other service providers.

This site provides information on the Ministry of Education’s early learning initiatives. It also introduces links to web sites and print resources that can assist families, educators and caregivers to provide early learning activities for children that support their development.

The Ministry of Education’s Early Learning Initiatives include:

  • Supporting school boards to influence the early learning of preschool-aged children, in partnership with families and other service providers in communities.
  • Helping schools to increase the number of children who demonstrate school readiness in Kindergarten; and
  • Identifying key areas of early learning for young children.

StrongStart BC - The Ministry of Education is introducing StrongStart BC centres in a number of elementary schools across British Columbia. StrongStart BC centres offer preschool-aged children quality early learning experience. At no cost to the family, these centres offer play-based early learning and demonstrate for parents and caregivers how they can help their children develop language and other pre-requisite skills, knowledge and attitudes for success in school.

Ready, Set, Learn - Ready, Set, Learn is a school readiness initiative that helps families get their children ready for school. Families attending Ready, Set, Learn events in schools receive a kit of materials to influence school readiness--an age appropriate book for three year olds and a parent guidebook.

Early Learning Framework - The Ministry of Education is developing an Early Learning Framework for children, from birth to five years old. This framework will set out a vision, principles, and key areas of learning for young children in British Columbia. The Ministry recently requested public feedback on the Early Learning Framework draft. The framework is currently being revised based on the feedback we received from British Columbians. A Summary of Feedback [PDF - 16KB] on the draft Early Learning Framework is now available.
Copies of the revised framework will be available Spring 2008.