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Education and Early Learning

The best poverty reduction strategy is a strong, publicly funded education system.

Ontario has made significant investments in education over the past five years that are already paying off. Since 2003, Grades 3 and 6 student results have improved by nearly 10 percentage points, and the graduation rate in Ontario has increased from 68 per cent to 75 per cent.

This strategy builds on our success. There’s more help for at-risk kids in school, more recreation programs for high needs neighbourhoods, and more supports for parents to get involved in their kids’ education. Highlights include:

• Tripling the number of Parenting and Family Literacy Centres to a total of 300 across the province; and
• Investing in an After School Program to give kids activities after school.

The strategy also includes the implementation of full-day learning for four- and five-year-olds, with part of the initial focus on low-income neighbourhoods. In addition to improving readiness for success in Grade 1 and beyond, this initiative will free up important early learning resources to help more parents access additional quality child care and learning opportunities for their children.