Building a strong base for future success

We are refocusing our education system on academic achievement to help students succeed and learn real-life job skills.

Education spotlight

Ontario Students Going Back-to-Basics with Fewer Distractions This Fall

Back-to-basics learning priorities

We have set clear priorities for school boards, emphasizing back-to-basics learning in reading, writing, math and STEM education. Boards are:

  • reflecting these priorities in their public multi-year plans
  • engaging parents about how their multi-year plan addresses provincial priorities

Learn more about how parents can engage with school boards.

Preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow

Two primary grade students sitting at a desk using a computer to learn together

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:

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.

Group of elementary students working with a robotics kit and learning together

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
Two high school students working on a car in auto shop class

Skilled trades

We continue to update curriculum so students can learn about skilled trades and get hands-on learning to prepare for rewarding and well-paying careers.

We’re also helping connect students to career pathways in the skilled trades through programs such as:

Starting with students entering Grade 9 in the 2024–2025 school year, all students must earn a Grade 9 or Grade 10 Technological Education credit to graduate.

Parent and child going over household bills at the kitchen table

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:

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.

Establishing a modern and accountable school system

Aerial view of a school building and surrounding property

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.

Group of students with a teacher gathered around a table with 2 notebooks. They are collaborating in a classroom setting on a focused activity

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.

Labour stability

We negotiated central labour agreements with all education unions that will provide stability for over 2 million students for the next 3 years.

More reading

For students

Find made-in-Ontario activities, courses and more to learn more from home.

For parents

Learn about our school system and your child’s educational journey.

For teachers

Learn about topics such as the curriculum, training and professional growth, Indigenous education and the governance and funding of publicly funded schools.

For school boards

Find information about publicly funded school board leadership and governance for principals, vice-principals and school board leaders.