By Chris Brown

Per-student rate of $490

Province to give schools extra funding for literacy, numeracy supports

Oct 27, 2021 | 4:18 PM

The province has given more details on a spring funding announcement it says will help students catch up from pandemic-caused learning disruptions and help them continue to learn safely at schools.

In May the province said up to $45 million would be made available to school authorities to address learning disruptions.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said today the funding will be distributed at a rate of $490 per student for literacy or numeracy supports. She said some students will qualify for both and schools will receive $980 for those students.

“This funding will allow schools to increase supports to improve writing, reading and numeracy skills for younger students who have fallen behind during the pandemic,” LaGrange said.

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School authorities will use the funding to offer focused programming that goes above and beyond classroom learning.

They will have the flexibility to design programs that best meet students’ needs, be that new programming, enhancing existing programs or extending existing supports.

This could mean increasing the intensity of programming for students through smaller groups, hiring more staff or increasing parent involvement, LaGrange said.

The initial focus will be Grade 2 and 3 students this fall and targeted supports for students in Grade 1 in February 2022.

To start, about 38,000 students will receive literacy programming and 25,000 will receive numeracy programming.

LaGrange also said the weight of diploma exams will be lowered to 10 per cent for this school year in recognition of the ongoing impacts the pandemic may have had.

The education minister also said rapid COVID-19 tests will first be offered to Kindergarten to Grade 6 schools across the province that are on Outbreak status.