Ontario’s Plan to Boost Literacy and Math Skills

This government is firmly committed to helping students across Ontario build life, job and critical thinking skills that lead to success inside the classroom and beyond.

Recent EQAO scores have shown that Ontario students, like those in all other provinces and all other advanced economies, require additional supports to help them build these foundational skills.

This government investing more than $180 million in targeted supports in the classroom and at home to help students build the math and reading skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the workforce.

Ontario’s plan to boost math skills

This government is investing $71 million in 2023-24 in a new math plan to boost math skills, which will:

Hire over 380 net-new math educators

Double the number of school math coaches in classrooms to provide direct support to teachers and students.

Introduce one math lead per board to drive improvement, spearhead math curriculum implementation and standardize training, and additional supports for math coaches in the classrooms.

Expand live teacher-led virtual tutoring and digital math tools that students and parents can access anytime.

Enhance skills of new teachers by covering costs to upskill in math to enhance math fluency and competency.

Strengthening Literacy across Ontario

To help more young students build stronger reading skills, we are investing $109 million in 2023-24 to boost literacy rates. This is the largest investment in Canada dedicated to supporting literacy development with our youngest learners.

This includes the largest reading screening initiative in the country by accessing all students in senior kindergarten to grade 2, to identify challenges early.

We are also investing in intervention supports for those children that need assistance by funding the hiring of over 690 literacy-educators.

This plan is supported by the new Language curriculum that will be unveiled in September, aligned with modern research and supported by the OHRC.

This government has, and will continue to, prioritize foundational subjects such as reading and math to ensure students can build the life, job and critical thinking skills they need to succeed today, tomorrow and in the jobs of the future.

Learn more: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002937/ontario-launches-plan-to-boost-math-writing-and-reading-skills