Childhood development slowed by N.B. bureaucracy

University president argues major reforms needed for early childhood development

Last Updated: Monday, August 30, 2010 | 1:07 PM ET

By Daniel McHardie, CBC News

Dennis Cochrane, the interim president of St.Thomas University in Fredericton, says New Brunswick must make significant changes in the delivery of education and social services to New Brunswick children. (Courtesy: St. Thomas University)

The next New Brunswick government must tear down bureaucratic barriers or risk failing the next generation, the president of St. Thomas University says.

Dennis Cochrane, the interim president of the university in Fredericton, says significant reforms must be made inside the provincial government, each designed to improve the quality of early childhood development.

"New Brunswick needs a more seamless, efficient system of providing education services — both schooling and social services — that will make our province a leader in childhood education," Cochrane, a former deputy minister of education in Nova Scotia, writes in an analysis for the CBC News elections web page, N.B. Votes.

"Our children deserve no less if we are going to move our province ahead in the 21st century."

Cochrane, a former Moncton, N.B., principal who led the provincial Progressive Conservatives from 1991 to 1995, calls on the next government to stop viewing childhood development in compartmentalized silos.

He recommends taking three steps immediately:

• Creating a single government department for all childhood services
• Providing voluntary early childhood programs for four-year-olds
• Setting up community "centres of care" that would consolidate services in one building

Cochrane points out that a child starting Grade 1 this September, and who completes high school and a four-year post-secondary degree, will graduate in 2026. That's the year the Liberal government says New Brunswick will attain self-sufficiency and will no longer need federal transfer payments.

Cochrane says reform cannot wait for more study, or the government will risk letting down the "self-sufficiency generation."

Single education department

Currently, the Department of Education oversees the K-12 system, the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour governs higher-education institutions and the Department of Social Development deals with early childhood development.

Cochrane wants the province to consolidate education services under one roof.

'One cannot lose sight of the fact that departments should exist to deliver services to the client not serve as a safe haven for bureaucrats led by a minister or deputy minister.'— Dennis Cochrane

Bureaucratic walls must be ripped down so children can seamlessly move through the government from birth to age 21, he writes.

New Brunswick's existing bureaucratic framework allows bureaucrats to "hide behind their funding model" and often progress is coded in bureaucratic language, according to Cochrane.

"One cannot lose sight of the fact that departments should exist to deliver services to the client not serve as a safe haven for bureaucrats led by a minister or deputy minister," Cochrane writes.

Programs for 4-year-olds

Cochrane also calls for a voluntary early childhood development program for four-year-olds.

He says some services are open to four-year-olds in New Brunswick, but geography and income tend to limit the number who can take advantage of those initiatives.

Cochrane cites work by Margaret McCain, a former lieutenant-governor, who has advised the province on early childhood development issues and recommended centres for four-year-olds.

Nine pilot projects operate across the province. But the university president says this is not enough.

Developing centres of care

New Brunswick is spending more on education each year but fewer students are walking into classrooms. There are 34,000 fewer students enrolled in New Brunswick's K-12 classes than in 1991, and a drop of another 54,000 is forecast in the next two decades.

Instead of closing schools, which will often be in rural areas, Cochrane says communities need to take them over and use them to deliver a variety of other services.

These centres could house pre-school classes, daycare centres, health and recreational facilities and adult literacy initiatives.

"The potential of families, communities, educators, service professionals, and government working together is unlimited — doors would be opened and barriers would come down," Cochrane writes.