By India Blooms News Service Apr 18, 2023
Toronto/IBNS: Ontarios Education Ministry is investmenting over $180 million for classroom and at-home support to boost students math, reading and writing skills.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced the funding in a press conference Sunday to bring in over 300 educators to help boost math competency and some 700 other educators to improve student literacy.
The funding is the latest move by the province to help boost student performance in schools.
Low test scores, particularly for maths, have been a point of focus for the Doug Ford government for years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once the pandemic hit, lockdowns and shifts between virtual and in-person learning disrupted the learning which worsened or stagnated EQAO test scores and other skills.
Weve seen the decline in reading, writing and math skills, and todays plan is a clear signal that were not going to sit idle, were not going to hope for the best, said Lecce in the news conference.
Were going to invest through a comprehensive plan that really lifts the skills and the standards and frankly the ambitions of kids by making sure that they can exit their high school experience having mastered those fundamental skills.
Proud to announce Ontarios plan to boost literacy math skills. This $180M plan: ?doubles math coaches in schools ?delivers reading screening for all SK-Grade 2 kids ? hires 1,000 new front-line educators ?mandatory PD for teachers We are going #BackToBasic. pic.twitter.com/WGeNI1WfdM
Stephen Lecce (@Sflecce) April 16, 2023
Of the total funding, more than $71 million will go toward a new maths plan for the coming school year, building off the math curriculum introduced in 2020, which mandates financial literacy and coding in every grade.
Lecce says $109 million will go toward boosting literacy rates starting this school year including hiring of additional specialist teachers to ensure over 400,000 students in senior kindergarten to Grade 2 are screened up to twice a year to make sure theyre meeting provincial standards.
Also included in this funding is an overhauled language curriculum starting September to enable young students to master basic literacy.
Lecce added that a lot of funds will go toward boosting outcomes in the lowest 20 percent of schools that have historically underperformed in math and literacy EQAO testing.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)