Kindergarten teacher Kim Ewart will be moving into the public school system in eight months. (CBC)

Some substitute teachers in P.E.I. are worried they may have a harder time finding full-time work once kindergarten students and their teachers move into the public school system next fall.

Judith Reeson, a substitute teacher, said landing a job would become even more difficult for her if the kindergarten teachers are allowed to teach other grades as well.

"They've been allowed full access to a full-time position without going through any of the maze of possibilities that I and the other teachers have to face in the school system," she said Thursday.

Kindergarten programs in the province, now run by child-care centres, will be become part of the public school system in the fall of 2010.

Child-care workers are being encouraged to get education degrees so they can move to the public system as well. The issue is the expedited degree program they've been offered.

The usual prerequisite for a bachelor of education degree in P.E.I. is a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree, but this requirement has been waived for child-care workers. They must complete a two-year bachelor of education program at the University of Prince Edward Island by 2016.

Kindergarten teacher Kim Ewart, who will be moving into the public school system in eight months, said she sees the move as a positive change that may pave the way for a teaching job in a higher grade.

"I really love teaching kindergarten, but it is nice to have that option," she said.

Linda Lowther, the Department of Education's senior director of learning and early childhood development, said the modified requirements may raise questions about how qualified the teachers will be.

"Many of the people who will be taking this program won't have [what are] generally called teachable subjects," she said. "They won't have a BA in history or a B.Sc. in math. So there might have to be some restrictions put as to how high the grades might be."

An advisory group has been set up by the province to decide whether the bachelor of education degree granted to kindergarten teachers will have limitations on the grades they can teach.

Reeson said she hopes they are restricted to teaching kindergarten only.

"I'm not a total math genius, but I know that six years at a university is not the same as two years at a college and two years at a university," she said.