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, a man-made famine in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
In Grade 10, students will cover the experiences and the history of black Canadians in a course covering Canadian history since the First World War. Grades 7 and 8 students will also take mandatory lessons on the experiences and history of black Canadians.
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.
Students will learn about fractions, coding, and patterns “earlier in their education.”
