New Investments will Help Improve Math Skills for a Better Tomorrow!

Ontario’s government is launching efforts to strengthen math skills for all students in Ontario – especially for students in under-served communities. This initiative will help students develop the math skills they need to succeed and find good jobs when they enter the workforce. These programs will help students retain and build on the math knowledge and skills they have learned throughout the academic year.

“We are listening to parents and educators. Ontario students need greater support to strengthen their math skills to achieve success in school and into their careers. This investment provides our young people with access to the skills they need to enter the workforce with confidence, and further underscores our government’s focus on STEM in the classroom,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education.

In response to consistently declining math scores in elementary school, our commitment is to help improve math scores by investing more than $6 million for summer initiatives throughout the province, including:

• Math-focused three-week Summer Learning Programs offered by school boards for students in Kindergarten to Grade 5 who need more support to minimize summer learning loss, build confidence, increase skills, and have greater success during the regular school year.
• Frontier College programs that support the development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills of high-priority students who live in under-served communities, including First Nations and remote communities. These programs also engage parents, volunteers, educators and community organizers to better prepare them in support of these students.
• Math at Home, a virtual summer learning refresher for students and parents. The online resource will help support student learning, mitigate against summer learning loss and ensure parents are aware of opportunities to help prepare their child for success in math.

These initiatives support the government’s four-year math strategy, which is focused on fundamental math concepts and skills, and how to apply them. In the first year of the strategy, Ontario will be supporting it with a $55-million investment. The strategy will ensure that students are prepared for success in the classroom and in their future, teachers are confident and capable in teaching math, and parents and families can support their kids.

Other resources available throughout most of the year for students and parents include:

• TVO’s Mathify: Ontario Certified Teachers provide free 1:1 English-language math tutoring for students in grades 7 to 10.
• SOS Devoirs: Ontario Certified Teachers provide free 1:1 tutoring and educational resources in all subjects for French-language students from grades 1 to 12.
• Doing Mathematics with Your Child: a guide for parents to help their children from Kindergarten to Grade 6.
• Parent Engagement: innovative resources for math success.