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Thank you for listening to Depiction's Media
Radio. Welcome to Policy Rights to show

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about government policy and human rights.
Welcome back to Policy and Rights here in

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Depictions Media Radio. I'm your host, Michael Cloggs. Education is one of

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the cornerstones to leading to a extraordinary
and fantastic life. Learning what is around

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us and what not only is on
our planet, but what is out my

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cosmos has been a cornerstone to my
life and I couldn't have done it without

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some of the basic skills that we
need reading, writing, and of course

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math. Now most people won't go
much further than algebra, and many who

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said the cosmos they study much more
than that with advanced calculus and things like

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that. But those skills that they
learned in elementary school is what led them

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down. These paths, led them
to the thought processes, the logic paths

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that they used to study. Many
of school systems are falling short on these

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ideas of the basic skills and some
of the things that we actually need.

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Maybe some of these things are being
a little too much replaced by computers.

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Maybe some of these things can be
spent up with the right softwares of putting

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it, putting them into automated systems. But we're going to hear from the

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Ontario Education Minister, Stephen Lees as
he talks about how Ontario is going to

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improve the education system. But they're
looking to improve the basics dal's first,

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reading, writing, and math,
and we'll learn how Ontario is going to

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do it and we can watch to
see where their successes are. So let's

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listen to that segment now and maybe
learn how we can help more kids across

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Canada. Good morning, Thank you
Wall. Thank you so much Patrese for

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the introduction and for your leadership in
the ministry. I want to just first

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off give a quick shout out to
our amazing host here at the Album Library

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for welcoming us a brilliant space where
literacy is promoted every single day and stem

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education. And I also want to
thank Alicia Smith from Dyslexia Canada and Kevin

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Maynard from the Canadian Foundation for Economic
Education for joining us for this important announcement.

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We know that for your children to
strive to reach their full potential,

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we must ensure they master their foundational
skills. Every day parents tells they want

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their children's school to focus on the
fundamentals improving reading, writing and math.

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So today we're outlining our strategy to
boost math and literacy skills in Ontario by

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going back to the basics. In
every stage of life, mastering mathematics and

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reading is critical. Yet this province, and frankly around the entire industrialized world,

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too many children are falling behind and
the EQUAO data confirms this. We

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have schools that have consistently underperformed in
these fundamental skills. And so today we

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are challenging the status quo, raising
the bar all of us, from educators

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to school boards, to governments to
community working harder and smarter, eading to

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better outcomes for your children. And
so today Patrise and I are proud to

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unveil on terrorist plan to boost literacy
and math skills designed to deliver better schools,

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better jobs and outcomes for your children. So first, we're going to

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be investing more than one hundred and
eighty million dollars in additional funding for the

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coming school year focused on math and
reading supports. Through this investment, our

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government is supporting the hiring of nearly
one thousand specialized math and literacy educators,

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all designed to deliver better schools for
your children. Now specific to math.

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We're going to be investing more than
seventy one million dollars in a new math

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plan supported by the recently introduced modernized
math curriculum that mandates financial literacy and coding

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in every single grade. On tarist
plan to boost math skills will hire hundreds

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of specialized math educators. We will
also double the number of school math teacher

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coaches in classrooms. These are math
coaches that are to provide direct hands on

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support to both the teacher and to
students in classroom that are falling behind.

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To ensure school boards have one senior
leader that is exclusively focused on improving math

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competence and the training of our teachers
with new strategies to lift math skills in

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the classroom, will be funding one
dedicated math lead in every single board.

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They will spearhead math curriculum implementation.
They will standardize the training and provide additional

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supports for math coaches in schools and
in classrooms. This is another accountability measure

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we're introducing to help every single board
lift their scores and the skills of their

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kids. We're also enhancing skills of
new teachers through dedicated training and covering the

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costs of additional math qualification courses professional
development to help enhance math fluency and competency

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of our frontline educators. We're also
going to be expanding financial literacy learning and

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resources in the classroom to ensure more
of the hands on practical learning like personal

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budgeting, how to save, how
to pay taxes or take a mortgage,

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or live within one's means. And
finally, we're going to continue to expand

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access to digital math tools. That's
the live teacher led virtual tutoring offered in

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math. That is a lot,
but to ensure these resources have impact,

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we are also announcing the creation of
a Math Action Team to drive improvement.

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These are highly trained educators who will
be seconded in the Ministry of Education and

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deploy to those boards where we need
to raise standards to improve the training and

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the outcomes of our kids. The
Math Action Team will drive improvement by working

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with school boards to identify and recommend
targeted, high impact teaching practices to improve

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math achievement right across this province.
It is an all hands on deck approach

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to boost financial literacy and math skills
in the classroom. Now, when it

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comes to literacy, we know many
young children have faced regression over the past

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years. It's experienced parents around this
country have said they've seen themselves. So

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first, we're going to overhaul the
entire language curriculum, which will be in

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place this coming September. This curriculum
will help every single child read, including

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those kids with intellectual or developmental disabilities. And I'm pleased to announce our plan

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to boost literacy skills through a historic
investment of more than one hundred and nine

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million dollars, the largest investment in
the country to boost literacy because we take

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this seriously, because if we don't
intervene at the front end and course correct

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these challenges for these young kids,
it can lead to long term impacts.

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It Literacy costs our productivity in our
economy billions, It undermines self conference and

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impacts mental health and their job opportunities. So starting this September, in addition

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to a new curriculum, I'm announcing
that every student in their second year of

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kindergarten, in grade one and in
grade two will be screened to ensure their

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meeting their provincial standard. This is
critical to establish some measurement tool so that

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we can intervene with additional supports in
the schools and classrooms and to those kids

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that will need it most. On
Arrel's plan to boost literacy includes over one

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hundred million dollars, and that includes
new supports, including nearly seven hundred additional

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frontline reading specialist educators. They'll be
deployed to help those children to get them

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on track. This will ensure all
young learners receive the necessary foundational skills and

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the early interventions they're going to be
critical for their lifelong success. This represents

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the largest investment in math and literacy
in the country. It is by far

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the most comprehensive literacy promotion strategy in
the nation, and we're doing this because

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we recognize the challenge ahead. Now
we're also extending on Terrell's free tutoring program

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to the end of the school year, again with the focus on boosting those

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fundamental skills in reading, writing,
a math, and other STEM disciplines.

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This plan will up our game and
it sends a clear signal to the entire

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province that we have to do better
to boost the skills that actually matter to

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the success of your child. So
yes, back to basics, back to

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learning what matters most, so that
your children can graduate they could own a

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home and get a good paying job. So thank you for joining us,

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and I'm now please to welcome Kevin
Maynard, the vice president of the Kadian

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Foundation for Economic Education, to the
podium. Thank you, Minister, let

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students, other invited guests, thank
you for inviting me to this great event.

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We know that learning happens throughout our
lives, and that learning occurs at

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libraries such as this, at home
with the support and guidance of parents and

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other caregivers, and in schools with
teachers equipped with the skills and resources that

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are required in today's ever changing world. We know that education is in the

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business of preparing our youth to build
successful futures, and we all have a

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role to play. A key challenge
is the rapidly changing world of work.

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As jobs disappear, jobs are created, and jobs change, and the label

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markets adjust to these new realities.
Employers are looking for new skills, different

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types of knowledge, and their needs
and interests will continue to change in the

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future. It is essential that we
equip our youth with the fundamental skills that

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will able them to adapt and respond
to these changes, and to sustain success

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and respond to opportunities in our evolving
world. This initiative by the Minister of

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Education and Math Resources and Professional Development
Support makes a tremendous contribution to the potential

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for improving the readiness of Ontario students
for the future. After all, we

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are all after the same goal,
improving the potential of our youth through investments

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that will lead to building financial capability
and ensuring that our full potential can be

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reached as individuals and in our community, throughout the province and beyond. Thank

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you again, and now I'd like
to invite Alicias Smith, Executive director of

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Dyslexio Canada, to come up thank
you. Every year, for the past

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twenty years, we've had at least
a third of students leave high school in

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Ontario without having reached the level of
literacy that they need to fully participate in

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the modern economy. That's one out
of every three students who are being shut

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out of life's opportunities due to low
literacy. Low literacy puts these young people

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at an increased risk for many negative
long term outcomes, including under an unemployment,

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poverty, homelessness, and issues with
mental health and addiction. And we

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know from decades of data that racialized
and indigenous students, students from lower socioeconomic

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backgrounds, and students with disabilities like
dyslexia are disproportionately impacted. But it doesn't

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have to be this way. Research
conducted in Canada and internationally, along with

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real results from room teachers right here
in Ontario, clearly show us that if

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we change our approach, we can
improve our outcomes. When schools align instruction

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with reading science, implement universal screening
using evidence based tools to identify students who

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are at risk of dyslexia and other
causes of reading difficulties, and provide targeted

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early intervention starting in kindergarten, reading
difficulties can be prevented for over ninety five

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percent of all children. We have
had the information and the tools necessary to

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improve outcomes for over twenty years.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read

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Inquiry was launched to discover why it
is that the Ontario education system had yet

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to adopt current evidence based practices.
The HRC has provided a comprehensive set of

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recommendations for system change at all levels
and education, including at the Ministry,

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school boards, schools, and in
our faculties of education. Dyslexia Canada is

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encouraged that the Government of Ontario has
committed to implementing the OHRC's recommendations. We

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see today's funding announcement as a positive
and necessary step that will help Ontario school

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boards shift their approach to early literacy
to align with evidence based practices. I

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know many Ontario school boards and teachers
who have made significant progress over the past

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several years in updating their practices.
It is so exciting to see the data

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that is coming out of these schools
and classrooms and to hear about the positive

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impact that these changes are having on
children, not only on their reading ability,

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but also in their confidence, self
esteem, the behavior, and their

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enthusiasm for reading and learning. But
there's a lot of work to do to

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ensure that every child in every school
board is provided with the instruction and the

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support that they need to get off
to a good start with reading. With

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today's announcement, we are one step
closer to that goal. I'd like to

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thank Minister Leche and his team for
engaging with us in productive discussions over the

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past year. Dyslexia Canada remains committed
to working collaboratively with all parties and all

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stakeholders in education. As we work
towards fully implementing the right to read recommendations.

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Thank you, and I'd like to
invite Minister Leche to answer questions.

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Thank you. We will now open
the floor for questions. Please step forward

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to the mic and state your name
and outlet. Just a reminder, it's

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one question and one follow up perscussion. Minister Leach, you spoke about hiring

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around a thousand and staff towards this
new program. There are four thousand,

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eight hundred schools in the province.
Any hiring that was done during the pandemic,

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school boards have said was done through
pandemic funding. Most likely those seven

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thousand jobs. Many of those people
will be laid off. So with only

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a thousand people being offered up,
which is less than twenty percent of schools

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across the province, how much of
an impact do you really think that new

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staff will make? Well? The
problems will be providing the fulsome education funding

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details for school boards very shortly where
that answer it could be provided for today.

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What I can commit to is providing
more capacity and staffing that was there

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in years past. I mean the
literacy program. This one hundred and nine

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million dollars is entirely new. We
never had a program dedicated specifically lifting standards

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in literacy right across Ontario through new
curriculum, through new staffing, and frankly

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more resources in the classroom on mathematics. You know, last year we were

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investing about fifty five million dollars.
This year, according to the plan,

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it's over seventy million. We're going
to sustain the staff and hire additional ones

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because we recognize we've got a zero
in on those classrooms that are underperforming.

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The goal with respect to math is
to really focus on that lower twenty percent

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of schools that quintal of schools that
are really underperforming, use those supports,

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those additional staff to get into those
classrooms and lift standards. So the message

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we're sending really is we're going to
help every child get ahead by focusing in

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on new supports, resources and people
to improve literacy and mathematics. But we're

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also going to really focus in on
the lowest performing schools to lift them up

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too, so that every child's able
to succeed in the economy. So you

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just mentioned sustaining the staff that have
already been hired during the pandemic, a

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commitment we haven't really heard before.
You mentioned the budgets are coming up and

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that you will make those commitments soon. The budget, of course do in

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June. There's only less than two
and a half months to go. Why

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wait so long to release those details
to school boards. Well, the funding

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for school boards usually comes out in
the early to mid spring, sometimes late

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winter, so this is not abnormal. And what I can confirm to you

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as the rebudget confirmed is that the
funding for next school year is going to

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be up by over one billion dollars
one point three billion in baseline funding increase

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for school boards. We're going to
be really focusing in on strengthening reading,

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writing, and math skills. We're
going to improve supports for mental health and

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special education. So I think families
could be assured that this plan today to

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really go back to the basics on
emphasizing and improving literacy and mathematical competencies is

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going to go a long way,
especially after the pandemic, and of course

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in very short order we'll be able
to provide the broader investment for school boards

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and be assured that we're going to
be there for kids. We're going to

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ensure we invest in them through the
resources and staffing because we all want them

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to succeed. We've seen the decline
in reading, writing, mass skills,

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and today's plan is a clear signal
that we're not going to sit idle.

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We're not going to hope for the
best. We're going to invest through a

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comprehensive plan that really lifts the skills
and the standards and frankly the ambitions of

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kids by making sure that they can
exit their high school experience having mastered those

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fundamental skills. Thank you, thank
you. Regarding the new literacy screening for

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younger students, what kind of programming
and funding and resources will be put towards

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the kids who are falling behind?
And are you going to track them as

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they go through the school system,
So thank you for that. So we

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are going to be providing school boards
with the full funding to procure the tool,

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as well as the funding required for
the licensing. So we're going to

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be covering all the costs associated with
that tool and that technology, standardizing the

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training across Ontario to make sure the
teachers are comfortable with this screening tool.

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It's going to help over on hundred
thousand kids every year get a basic screening

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assessment up to two times per year
and that's going to be important. It's

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also going to be accessible and available
on the report cards for parents to see,

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to create that transparency that young people
that parents rather know about their youngest

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learners, how they're doing and how
frankly they're improving. And then with respect

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to the investments associated for those kids
and may need some intervention. Let's say

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that your child is falling behind or
below the standard we're now putting in place,

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the hiring and the funding of nearly
seven hundred teachers who are specialized in

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literacy promotion to work specifically with those
kids to lift up the standards and frankly,

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just to help them get a bit
more support so they can get back

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on track. I also wanted to
ask you about the Halton Public Board.

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More than a month ago, they
said they were going to put a professionalism

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policy in place and hire a special
advisor, neither of which have happened.

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How do you feel about the way
the board is continuing to handle this issue.

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Well, they made commitments to parents
in their community and we expect them

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to fall through on them. Just
before I ask my questions, does anybody

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speak French here? No? Okay, I always have to ask, so

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my first questions about the fact that
in the twenty twenty three budget thirty seven

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million dollars had already been been announced
for literacy and maths. So is the

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money announced today new money or is
it on top? Yeah, so we're

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announcing over one hundred and nine million
dollars specifically just for literacy. So those

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additional supports we're announcing today, um, and frankly, I think they're very

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needed, as we heard from Alicia
and others. I mean, if we

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can really invest in a plan that
helps every child improve their literacy and their

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math skills, if we can give
confidence to parents that we're going to increase

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the supports and resources for them,
I think we're going to help ensure the

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kids can confidently graduate and ultimately get
a good job. So this is additional

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money, this would be well,
yes, I mean there's additional funding we're

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unveiling today that it was not covered
in the budget. The budget speaks to,

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for example, the fact that we're
increasing investments in financial literacy. The

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budget commits to an increase of investment
overall to the Ministry of Education for our

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schools at one point three billion DOAR
baseline funding increase, so that's going to

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help a lot. But today we're
going much further through a comprehensive plan that

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brings it all together that's really premised
on lifting standards, increasing resources, increasing

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the specialized frontline teachers that can work
directly with children directly in classrooms and frankly

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help get these kids on track.
We know parents, We've heard them loud

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and clear, particularly parents of young
children, that fear that if we don't

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act now in kindergarten, in grade
one or two, in those early formative

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years, that their kids could have
lifelong impacts and roadblocks to success. So

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we hear them, and we're investing
in them with a plan to get them

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on track. And how the money
going to be divided among regions and schools

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because there must be regions in schools
that are that need that money more than

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other. Yeah, so it's going
to be I mean, some of the

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funding is based on enrollment of children
and some of it will be triage to

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help kids in schools that have historically
been low performing. That twenty percent of

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schools that have historically been underperforming in
Ontario with respect to math. That's where

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a lot of the resources will go. But frankly, every school, I

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mean, rather all school boards will
benefit from the investment, and I think

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it's critical, especially as we see
and we hear from job creators and employers

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who are saying to us, look, we've got to make sure that young

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people when they graduate, they've mastered
the skills that matter most. That's why

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today's plan to bolster literacy and mathematical
skills. I think it's going to have

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a massive impact in the life and
success of a child. Thank you well,

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Minister Andrew Brannan from CTV. I
just wanted to talk actually a little

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bit about that, the triaging and
how that process will work. So if

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it's twenty percent that are being identified, first of all, will they be

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getting twenty percent of each of the
budget line funding or how will that work

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and how will it be allocated?
Yeah, so it's an important question.

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So for each grade priority schools include
the lowest achieving twenty percent of schools,

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So we're going to really emphasize and
focus it on those according to Equo data,

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and really ensure that they get the
resources necessary. It'll be based on

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the needs of kids in all schools. But the fact is we have a

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plan today to improve literacy and math
across the board. But when it comes

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to mathematics, you know, we
understand that financial literacy is fundamental to the

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success of a young person, not
just in their own life, in their

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own household budgets, but also when
respect to getting a job. So we

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are going to make sure we lift
standards with accountability in place. The first

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approach is yes triaging and focusing on
lifting up the standards of the lowest performing

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schools and boards. The second is
to provide a new curriculum with more math

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coaches. We're doubling them to provide
support in schools. And finally, we

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have a Math Action Team, which
is essentially a team of highly trained,

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highly skilled math educators who we've secconded. We've brought them into the ministry that

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we can now deploy into the classrooms
or schools or boards that actually need to

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do better. And so we're using
a multitude of actions, more staffing,

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an action team, accountability. We're
frankly sending a clear signal to parents and

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to the education sector that we've got
to work harder and smarter and produce better

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results for children. And I think
this math support is going to really help

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get kids on track after years of
difficulty in the pandemic of course, only

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set them for their back. So
this is a realization, a recognition of

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a problem and a plan to help
them succeed and just okay, so we

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learned something, and we also learned
that hey, you know what, not

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all brains are wired the same,
and it means that we have to have

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some flexibility in our education system.
We still need those basic skills, the

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reading, the writing, and those
basic arithmetic and mass skills, but how

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do we support those who have brains
that are wired slightly differently? As we

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heard from Alice Smith, the executive
director for Dyslexia Canada. And there are

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other things out there are people out
there who have different things other than dyslexia,

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autism being one, and there's many, many more of ways of how

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the human brain can be wired and
that we're not all all wired the same,

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but we all can achieve greatness.
And by learning about how the human

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brain is actually wired in the samenesses
and the differences, that we can learn

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how to improve our education system so
our children can achieve way more than what

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we have ourselves. So thank you
for listening to us. Her own policy

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and rights here Depictions Media Radio.
I've been your host, Michael Cloggs.

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Please click that subscribe button wherever it
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m H. The show has been
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