Education Minister Stephen Lecce has announced a new Grade 9 math curriculum that eliminates the streaming of students into academic or applied courses.
Critics had been calling for an end to a practice they said discriminated against students from marginalized communities.
The new curriculum to begin in the fall will involve more real-life math applications and include lessons on financial literacy and coding.
Ontario says to better equip students with the skills they need to succeed, lift student math performance, and strengthen numeracy skills, the course:
- Ensures relevance to today’s job market with an emphasis on practical life skills – from the concept of interest, debt, savings, personal budgeting and price comparisons.
- Builds on learning from the modernized and landmark Grade 1-8 math curriculum to better prepare students for more advanced math to allow students to pursue any postsecondary, skilled trade and pathway in science, technology, engineering and mathematics that they choose.
- Helps students prepare for the jobs of tomorrow by introducing new learning of how to apply coding skills to understand complex mathematics and to make predictions. In addition, the course builds on students’ understanding of data to represent and analyze real-life situations.
The province says it will provide $40-million to train educators and some training materials will become available today.
