Some N.S. parents have trouble accessing literacy tutors for their children
Demand for literacy tutors is on the rise in Nova Scotia, but several factors are making it difficult for some parents to get their children the assistance they need.
Nicole Conrad, a psychology professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, co-authored a research article published earlier this year that found financial constraints and long waits are among the obstacles parents face in trying to secure tutors for their children.
She said her interest in the topic started when she noticed how many parents were commenting in Facebook groups about searching for help for their kids.
"They were posting information about why they were looking for tutors and the difficulty they were having to find tutors. And I just thought it seemed like an overwhelming number of parents," she said.
Affording a tutor
Some parents interviewed for the research said hiring a tutor for their children meant making sacrifices.
Tirsa Finlay of the Links Literacy Program at Chisholm Services for Children in Halifax says their program works to ensure that money doesn't stand in the way of families trying to access tutoring services.
"A lot of the kids that need literacy support, their families can't afford it," Finlay said.
"So, that's why we work hard and we work with the HRCE [Halifax Regional Centre for Education] and the Department of Education to find ways that we can offer that at a low cost or free."
But little to no cost isn't always a given.
Some parents paid up to $7,000 a year for their child to go to private tutoring businesses, Conrad's research found, and some paid rates ranging from $30 to $100 an hour for independent tutors.
The expense can make accessing tutoring services especially difficult for low-income families, particularly those in rural areas who don't have affordable services like Links Literacy.
"Just yesterday I received a call from someone in the [Annapolis] Valley looking for literacy support for a student in Grade 1," said Finlay.
Finlay said that although they are expanding their program, they are not yet offered everywhere.
Long waits for private literacy services have also posed problems for parents. Some were told they could be waiting for up to five years, according to the research.
Demand for tutors amid curriculum changes
Conrad said her research shows that some parents believe the literacy education their children receive in schools is inadequate, driving the demand for tutoring.
"The parents had children who were struggling to learn to read and they didn't seem to be getting the support that they wanted to get from the school that their child was in," she said.
Provincial assessments from 2022 showed that reading scores were below the grade level for nearly one in three students in Grade 3.
Despite the difficulties in accessing tutors, Conrad found that parents took the initiative to ensure their children could build literacy skills.
"The parents here seem to be very strong advocates for good literacy instruction and wanting that for their kids and that was really lovely to see," said Conrad.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
11 hours ago
- Global News
20 dogs rescued from meat farm in South Korea now safe in Canada
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook More than a dozen dogs rescued from a dog meat farm in South Korea are now safe on Canadian soil. An animal rights organization saved the canines from being slaughtered and eaten. Now that they're in the Montreal area, the long process of physical and emotional rehabilitation begins. 'We all see dogs as these happy, fun companions that we love and live with all the time, but for these dogs, they don't know that life,' said Jasmine Gallienne, the senior manager of Humane World for Animals rehabilitation centre west of Montreal. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Twenty canines recently rescued from a dog meat farm in Cheongju, South Korea, recently arrived at the centre. According to the organization, some of the animals are in relatively good spirits, but others are scared and traumatized. Story continues below advertisement 'These dogs were confined 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in small barren cages,' said program director, Ewa Demianowicz. The dog meat trade was outlawed in South Korea last year, but the ban won't take full effect until 2027. For the full story, watch the video above.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cross Lake elder turns 80 next month; going home her birthday wish
Nora McLeod turns 80 next month, and for her birthday, she hopes to be back home to celebrate in Cross Lake. 'Hopefully,' she said, seated on a couch near the lobby of the Victoria Inn, her cellphone firmly in hand. McLeod is among the many Cross Lake evacuees currently staying at the airport-area hotel. The latest word among them is that American firefighters are being deployed to help fight the nearby blaze. Cross Lake Chief David Monias confirmed to the Free Press that U.S. firefighters are expected to arrive Friday. A report from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre on Tuesday noted that 99 American firefighters are being sent to Manitoba. That news brought relief to McLeod, who had heard from people still in the community that fires were leaping from island to island. 'My home is on an island,' she said. 'Hopefully, it's safe.' She arrived in Winnipeg by car on Saturday, choosing not to fly on a C-130 Hercules. 'I might have had a heart attack,' she said, admitting she's too nervous for air travel. Instead, she travelled with her son and daughter-in-law, completing the 800-kilometre journey from Norway House — their first evacuation stop — to Winnipeg. As an elder, McLeod was able to skip the congregate evacuation centres and secure a hotel room. 'It's been tiring,' she said. A great-grandmother, McLeod noted that her family is scattered — across Winnipeg, and as far away as Niagara Falls in southern Ontario. This isn't her first evacuation. She remembers 1989, when 25,000 people from 25 Northern Manitoba communities were forced from their homes during one of Canada's worst forest fire seasons. At the time, she was an addictions worker and remained in the community to assist evacuees and firefighters. 'The fires were so close,' she said. 'We still couldn't go home. We had to stay in the band office. I tell my grandchildren now that we worked and we had a hard time. We couldn't sleep. The only pillow I had was a paper-towel roll.' Now, McLeod spends much of her time reading updates online and through Facebook, monitoring what friends and neighbours post. 'I keep checking my camera, as well,' she said. The security camera shows her home on an island in the community, untouched, so far, by the flames. At the nearby Best Western, 61-year-old Mauricio Diaz-Lopez, his 32-year-old wife Joelynn Scott and their 10-year-old daughter Mayela Diaz-Lopez have been in Winnipeg for only a few days. Unlike many evacuees, they are from Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in northern Ontario. Their community was the first First Nation in the area to be evacuated after the Kenora 20 wildfire — which started in Ingolf, Ont., and later led to the closure of Manitoba's Whiteshell Provincial Park — began threatening the region last month. 'We were sent to Niagara Falls,' said Mauricio, originally from Nicaragua. 'We were there for about two weeks.' Homesick, the family purchased flights back home, only to be evacuated to Winnipeg Monday. 'We wanted to be home. We live in the bush. Being somewhere else, it's just not the same,' Mauricio said. He previously lived in Winnipeg, which made adjusting a bit easier. The family also knows others in the city. 'My best friend is here on the fourth floor,' Mayela said. This isn't their first experience with evacuation. In 2021, the family had to leave their home due to wildfires, ending up in Thunder Bay while others from their community went to London, Ont. Mauricio said the Red Cross has supported them with accommodations and meals. He also rented a car, and the family planned to spend Wednesday in Carman. 'It kills the day,' he said. 'And I can work on my driving,' added Joelynn. Across the parking lot, Antonio Cook sat next to a Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake) elder on the edge of the hotel's water fountain. Cook had just heard that the fire had reached the community, and that if the wind shifted direction, his and many other homes on the First Nation, about 900 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, would be at risk. 'It's pretty hard,' Cook said, having had to travel to Gillam before being flown on a C-130 to Winnipeg. After arriving, he spent about five hours at Billy Mosienko Arena, one of the city's congregate evacuation sites, before heading to the hotel. 'They've been treating us good, meals three times a day,' he said. 'I'm enjoying myself right now.' Scott BilleckReporter Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade's worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott. Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Montreal Gazette
2 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
Can a city councillor call people ‘idiots' on Facebook? A judge will decide
By Can a municipal councillor insult others on social media — calling them 'idiots,' 'morons' and much worse — if the exchange has nothing to do with their official duties? That question was put to Quebec administrative judge Sandra Bilodeau on Wednesday during an ethics hearing involving Andrew Caddell, an anglophone rights advocate and town councillor in Kamouraska. At the heart of the case is a long, heated Facebook exchange about anglophones, conducted in French on New Year's Eve, in which Caddell commented. Topics included Bill 96, Quebec's language law reform, which Caddell described as 'discriminatory.' After investigating a complaint, the Quebec Municipal Commission determined Caddell likely contravened Kamouraska's ethics rules 13 times, citing conduct that was 'disrespectful or uncivil' and lacking in 'honour.' He could be fined up to $4,000 or suspended from his elected duties for up to 90 days. At the hearing, Laurie Beaulieu, a lawyer for the commission, noted that Caddell's Facebook profile mentions that he is a Kamouraska councillor, and he mentioned it on 10 occasions during the Facebook discussion. Beaulieu said Caddell told some individuals to 'go f--- themselves' and called others morons, idiots, bigots and losers. He also used the abbreviation 'TDC,' which, in context, clearly was shorthand for the French word for 'a--hole,' she said. She said the words used breached Kamouraska's ethics code, which forbids councillors from engaging in 'offensive, disparaging, or intimidating actions, or any form of incivility of a vexatious nature.' Elected officials are entitled to express their opinions freely, Beaulieu said. But their position requires them to do so with restraint, and Caddell's behaviour was 'objectively contrary to the honour and dignity of the office.' Beaulieu added: 'Mr. Caddell has the right to express his views on the Charter of the French Language — that is not under debate today. However, he must do so while respecting the rules of ethics and professional conduct.' Caddell is president of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, which has raised more than $200,000 to finance a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Bill 96. He's also a columnist with the Hill Times, an Ottawa political publication. Michael Bergman, a lawyer representing Caddell, argued that the comments, which he described as 'hard, difficult, strong, emotional, and passionate,' were made outside of Caddell's duties as a councillor. 'They had nothing to do with the needs, policies, affairs, or operations of the municipality of Kamouraska,' Bergman said. 'It was an exchange — a difficult one with intense words, without a doubt — between people regarding linguistic and minority questions across Quebec and Canada.' Elected municipal officials must be able to exercise their freedom of expression, he said, adding there is no precedent of a municipal councillor being subject to an ethics complaint for social media activity unrelated to their municipal role. Bergman described Caddell's French as 'exemplary,' noting that in the online discussion, he simply used 'street language — the kind of everyday talk Quebecers don't take issue with.' One should also consider the context of the Facebook discussion, he said. He pointed out that Caddell was under intense attack from others. Among other things, he was called a racist, a 'Rhodesian' and a 'supremacist' and told to 'take the 401 and screw off.' Bergman argued Caddell should be cleared in part because of a discrepancy between the English and French versions of Kamouraska's ethics code. In French, it refers to councillors being respectful toward 'citizens,' while the English one says 'citizens of the municipality.' Bergman said there's no proof anyone in the Facebook discussion — on the page operated by political commentator and former politician Nic Payne — was a resident of Kamouraska. For her part, Beaulieu cited the French version of the code. She said it's clear from the context that 'the notion of citizen must be interpreted broadly and liberally. (The code) in no way establishes that the term 'citizen' is limited to residents of the same municipality as the elected official.' The judge gave the two sides two weeks to submit briefs regarding the discrepancy between the French and English versions of the ethics code. A ruling is expected within three months. Caddell was elected as a councillor in Kamouraska, a municipality (population 607) in the Bas-St-Laurent region, in 2021. Caddell is a former Montreal West town commissioner who ran for the federal Liberals in 2011.
