Getting back to basics in education

Literacy and math skills

We are improving student literacy using scientific, evidence-based teaching methods to help students learn to read and write as part of:

• the revised elementary Language curriculum
• Grade 9 English and Français courses

Students in Senior Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 will receive early reading screening to identify potential reading difficulties. This helps teachers plan how to support all students. Specialist teachers are also available to work one-on-one or in small groups to support reading.

We have also revised the math curriculum for Grades 1 to 8 and Grade 9 to help students build a stronger foundation in math.

STEM learning

From Kindergarten to Grade 12, students learn Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through hands-on learning in real-world contexts. This helps them develop important skills like critical thinking, collaboration and coding.

In their Grade 9 Science course students learn about:

• STEM skills and connections
• coding
• engineering design processes
• Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing
• climate change

Financial literacy

Financial literacy is built into many subjects from Grades 1 to 12. These subjects include math, social studies and business studies.

Financial literacy learning is included in these compulsory courses for all high school students:

• Grade 9 Math
• Grade 10 Career Studies

Financial literacy teaches high school students how to:

• create a budget and manage their money
• protect themselves from financial scams
• plan for long-term investments, such as saving for their education or buying a car

Student mental health

Our student mental health policy has many requirements that school boards must meet to support student mental health. These include:

• developing and implementing a 3-year mental health and addictions strategy and 1-year action plan
• ensuring the delivery of mandatory teacher-led and culturally responsive mental health literacy training modules for students

Mandatory mental health learning is part of the elementary Health and Physical Education curriculum for every grade.

Find resources for parents and students.

Learn more about mental health resources in schools.

Building modern schools

We're building modern state-of-the-art schools to support student success.

We are investing approximately $16 billion over 10 years to support school construction, renewal and improvement. We’ve also introduced new measures to help build modern schools faster.

Learn more about how we’re building, expanding and renewing schools.

Transparency and accountability

We are investing $29 billion in education this year to support our students. We’ve also made changes to:

• make it easier to understand how we allocate funding to support students
• strengthen school board accountability on how they spend these funds

Learn about core education funding.