Provincial News

• Provincial News
• September 06, 2017

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Updated Curriculum, New Report Cards Coming to Ontario Schools

Province Modernizing School System to Unleash Full Potential of Every Student

Our schools are at the foundation of a fair and competitive Ontario. Today, our province's publicly funded education system ranks among the best in the world, preparing our students for academic and future success. To build on this progress and make our schools even better at unleashing every student's full potential, Ontario is taking immediate steps to give students and parents better information about a child's progress and launching an ambitious multi-year initiative to modernize curriculums and assessment tools from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mitzie Hunter, Minister of Education, were at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute to announce the opening of public consultations for this new initiative and detail the new report cards, which will be introduced in schools for the 2018-19 academic year.

Ontario's updated school curriculum will be developed through the public consultations with the goal of improving student achievement in core skills such as math and increasing emphasis on transferable life skills that can help students of all ages meet the changing demands of today and tomorrow. Communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity and global citizenship are skills that will help Ontario students thrive as they grow up in a changing, interconnected world. Beginning next school year, new report cards will better track a young person's development of these essential and transferable life skills.

By consulting with students, parents, teachers and other partners, the province also aims to:

• Help students take full advantage of their education experience with a new curriculum that better engages every aspect of a young person's interests and potential

• Place an increased emphasis on equity and well-being, including the effects that physical activity, bullying and mental health can have on student success in and out of the classroom

• Update provincial assessment and reporting practices, including EQAO, to make sure they are culturally relevant, measure a wider range of learning, and better reflect student well-being and equity

• Enhance parents' access to information about how their children are doing in school.

A comprehensive overhaul of school curriculum and student assessment tools, aimed at making our schools better at unleashing the full potential of every child, is essential to building a fairer, better Ontario.

Quick Facts

• Ontario will invest $49 million over three years to integrate student well-being into all provincial education practices and policies.
• The province’s renewed vision for education will help ensure that all students develop the knowledge, skills and characteristics to become personally successful, economically productive and actively engaged citizens.
• Over 86 per cent of Ontario students are graduating from high school — more than ever before.
• In 2016, 68 per cent of adults (ages 25-64) in Ontario had a postsecondary credential, up from 56 per cent in 2002 — higher than the rate for any country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
• Since 2013, the government has invested $9.3 billion in capital funding for school boards to support more than 120 new schools and more than 140 additions and renovations.
• This public consultation on student assessment will be conducted by the Premier and Minister of Education’s six education advisors led by Dr. Carol Campbell.

Additional Resources

• Promoting Well-Being in Ontario’s Education System