Ontario’s Curriculum Will Undergo 5 Major Changes This Fall; Here’s What Kids Will Learn

What Ontario Students Will Learn from 5 Major Curriculum Changes This Fall

February 15, 2024 TruthUSA

The Ontario government has been revising the province’s school curriculum and many of those changes will come into effect in September. Here’s a look at what’s changing.

Grade 10 students will be required to take a course on mental health literacy as part of a new career studies course.

An Introduction to Computer Science course will be replaced with two technological education courses for Grades 9 and 10. The Digital Technology and Innovations in the Changing World courses are designed to equip students with coding skills, as well as knowledge of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies.

An Exploring Canadian Geography course will also be available for Grade 9 students and Business Study courses for Grades 9 and 10.

Schools will also receive expanded learning on the Holocaust and mandatory instruction on the Holodomor famine, which was a man-made famine in the Ukraine from 1932-1933 under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

In Grade 10, students will cover the experiences and the history of black Canadians in the a course covering Canadian history since World War I. Grades 7 and 8 students will also take mandatory lessons on the experiences and history of black Canadians.

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Further changes will be implemented in September 2025, including an updated Kindergarten curriculum, with a focus on building stronger reading, writing, and math skills in younger grades.

“Combined with hands-on and play-based learning, this new kindergarten curriculum will ensure students entering Grade 1 across the province have the foundational skills in literacy and math and intellectual growth that will help set them up for long-term success,” says a Jan. 23 government news release.

Students at the Kindergarten level will have instruction that includes teaching sound-letter relationships, phonics knowledge, and building vocabulary.

“For example, as children are constructing a house with building blocks and other materials, the educator would intentionally use new words to build student vocabulary,” the release said.

The plan includes to start teaching students about fractions, coding, and patterns “earlier in their education.”

Despite calls from some parent groups, Mr. Ford has said he would not be making any further policy changes regarding gender ideology and parental rights in schools, similar to ones recently made in Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.

Following election promises made in 2019, Doug Ford’s government changed school policy to allow parents to opt their children out of some sexual education lessons. The revisions also saw sexual orientation lessons being moved to Grade 5, rather than Grade 6. Gender identity lessons were also moved from Grade 6 to Grade 8.

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