Legislative Assembly

During the past year just to illustrate the extent of this program, all Prince Edward Island Schools with facilities and with specialists in physical education carried out very extensive programs of instruction for over 14,000 students. In this Division strong emphasis is being placed on professional preparation. It is not just the case of anyone and everyone being able to carry on an effective program of Physical Education. Mr. Boswell is very insistent that these people be properly prepared professionally and many of our young people have been encouraz‘cd to pursue their studies in the field of Physical Education. Thirteen students from the Island attended the University of New Brunswick summer school in Physical Ed- ucation last year and eleven students were enrolled in the full time program of Physical Education.

Mr. Boswell reports that the Centennial Athletic Awards program in 1967 attracted sixty per cent participation from the student population and their attain- ment was such that they compared most favourably with other students in other provinces of this country.

The Alcohol Studies Division of the Department of Education, with a sane, sensible, and sober approach to the alcohol problem, organized a number of new Allied Youth posts in the province during this present year. I understand that eight new posts has been established, bringing the total number of Allied Youth posts in the province to 36 with a total membership of 3,263 of our young people. This, again, speaks well for the progressive program that is being carried on in the Alcohol Studies division.

As you are certainly aware, Mr. Speaker, in your capacity as a member of the teaching profession, an education system of today becomes a necessity, more and more diversified as time goes on and more and more complex. This is necessary in order to satisfy the individual’s needs in the world of today and the world of tomorrow.

I feel, Mr. Speaker, that one of the most progressive moves within our de- partment was made a year ago when the Division of Guidance and Special Educa- tion was established. The director, Mr. Russell Ewing, in the past twelve months has been co—ordinating and encouraging the existing school guidance program and planning for a much more extensive program. The aim of our Department in this regard is to provide adequate guidance services to both the elementary and the secondary educational systems within the province.

In this present school year eight people are engaged as full—time Guidance Counsellors within the school system. In co—operation with various progressive school boards throughout the. province we are involved in the recruitment and tin- training of suitable persons as guidance counsellors. Six additional persons are presently obtaining training and I am told that it will require from thirty to forty properly trained guidance people in order to oquip the schools in a manner We deem (lirsirablc. A program of training will be vigorously pursued until this level is achieved.

With the establishment of elementary consolidated schools thi‘ formation of special classes to meet the needs of these individual students, and there are many of them, with particular learning difficulties becomes much more possible. In this present school year, thirty special education classes of one type or another exist within our school system. And of this thirty thtre are two classes for the deaf and hard—of-hearing children. There are eleven day training classes for the train- able retarded children and seventeen opportunity classes for children who have difficulty in learning at the same rate as children of their own age. In addition, an extensive remedial reading program which was begun by my predecessor in office, is being continued and we hope that this will have the desired effect of bringing the reading capabilities of these young people up to a more desirable level.

Mr. Speaker, it was a source of much pleasure to me personally to find in the Speech from the Throne that plans are well underway for the provision of a workshop for young adults in this province who are handicapped either in a mental or a physical manner. For a number of years now, interested citizens, particularly in this immediate neighbourhood, members of service clubs, members of the Can-

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