Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce recently announced Ontario's full-day kindergarten program is undergoing an "overhaul" which will help "to create more systemic approaches to reading instruction and the introduction, in a very basic way, of mathematical skills and numeracy skills."
What do these proposed changes mean for educators, parents and children?
The proposed revisions must be considered and understood in the context of 1) the current full-day play-based kindergarten curriculum, and 2) recommendations and research that emerged from Ontario's Right to Read report, released in February 2022, stemming from an inquiry of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC).
The Right to Read inquiry revealed Ontario's public education system was not using evidence-based approaches to teach children with reading disabilities (and others) how to read. The education minister also said curricular updates are in keeping with the Right to Read report's recommendations.
