Doubled Grade 9 math instruction plus overhauled curriculum will equal better high school results, Manitoba Education officials calculate
Grade 9 students in the province will be getting a mandatory math makeover that education officials expect will add up to better results and an improved learning experience in the core subject.
Manitoba Education has overhauled the curriculum for incoming high schoolers to expose all students to budgeting 101 and increase foundational numeracy lessons. And the amount of instruction is being doubled.
Starting in September 2027, a new mandatory mathematics course will span the entirety of every student's Grade 9 school year. The rollout is being phased in with a pilot in selected schools scheduled for this fall.
The course is slated to replace four existing options — Grade 9 Mathematics, Transitional Mathematics, Transitional Mathematics I and Transitional Mathematics II.
'Math is so critical and foundational to learning for students and we know that the scores here in Manitoba are not reflective of the potential that we know that our students have,' Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said in an interview Friday.
Last year, 87 per cent of first-time ninth graders — the Class of 2027 — attained a mathematics credit. That figure dropped to 56 per cent among students in northern Manitoba.
Schmidt said high school teachers have long shared challenges related to getting through current curricula because of how dense it is.
The replacement Grade 9 course is essentially two credits instead of one, she said.
Some high schools offer a year-round introductory math course at present, but many have semestered models. The status-quo means some students take math in the fall of Grade 9 and do not revisit the subject until the winter of Grade 10.
The minister indicated her department's statistics show that gaps affect academic results.
That's one of the motivating factors for change, she said, noting that students can only benefit from more direct instruction in math.
COVID-19 pandemic disruptions to schooling, which resulted in many learners studying math from a distance, took a noticeable toll on Grade 12 provincial exam results.
The average scores in both applied and pre-calculus streams — 60 per cent and 62 per cent — dropped by about four per cent and six per cent, respectively, between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024.
Schmidt said Grade 9 is a fitting time to address financial literacy and bolster math instruction, in general, because students are introduced to streaming and start to customize their schedules significantly the following year.
In Grade 10, students can choose essential mathematics or a combined applied and pre-calculus course. Pre-calculus is a prerequisite to many professional post-secondary programs.
High school math teacher Jehu Peters and Anna Stokke, a professor at the University of Winnipeg, both endorsed the decision to extend the Grade 9 course over a full year.
Peters described Grade 9 as 'a pivotal year' in a news release on the subject.
Stokke said in an email that she was pleased to hear the minister had publicly recognized that students need better preparation for advanced math courses.
'It's important to keep in mind that math is cumulative, so closing math gaps among students needs to start earlier — in kindergarten-to-Grade 8 — where the foundation for success in high school math is built,' she added.
Manitoba is earmarking $65,000 for the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education to renew resources for Grade 9 teachers to deliver the new curriculum and help others integrate financial literacy from Grade 4 to 10.
Early years data on numeracy is particularly stark in Manitoba.
Just over one-third of Grade 3 students in English programs met grade-level expectations for math during 2023-2024. That figure has remained stable over the last decade.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Toronto Star
4 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Company that worked on ArriveCan app barred from government contracts for 7 years
OTTAWA - Ottawa says it has banned the largest contractor that worked on the ArriveCan app from entering into contracts or real property agreements with the government for seven years. Public Services and Procurement Canada has announced that GC Strategies Inc. has been deemed 'ineligible' after an assessment of the supplier's conduct. Last year, the department suspended the security status of GC Strategies, which the auditor general says was awarded more than $19 million for the project. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW That move followed an earlier decision to suspend the company from procurement processes within the department. The government also barred two other companies that contributed to the ArriveCan project, Dalian Enterprises and Coradix Technology Consulting, from participating in procurement opportunities. The federal government launched the app in April 2020 as a way to track health and contact information for people entering Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to digitize customs and immigration declarations. A report by Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan found the government's record-keeping was poor and its reliance on outside contractors allowed the cost of the project to balloon to $60 million. The first ArriveCan contract was initially valued at just $2.35 million. On Tuesday, Hogan is set to deliver an audit focusing on whether the contracts awarded and the payments made to GC Strategies and other incorporated companies were 'in accordance with applicable policy instruments' and were good value for money. Public Services and Procurement Canada says the government continues to take action to 'strengthen the integrity of the procurement process.' The Canadian Press has reached out to GC Strategies and to Public Services and Procurement Canada for comment. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth was ordered to appear before the bar of the House of Commons last year after refusing to answer questions at a committee hearing. Firth was grilled by MPs for two hours, though Liberals opted out of questioning after a doctor's note provided to the clerk of the House recommended that he not appear because of mental-health issues. GC Strategies did not develop or manage the ArriveCan app, but it was tasked by the federal government to assemble a team to complete some parts of the project. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025. Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Yes, I'd also like to receive customized content suggestions and promotional messages from the Star. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Politics Headlines Newsletter You're signed up! You'll start getting Politics Headlines in your inbox soon. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.
Global News
17 hours ago
- Global News
India's Modi to attend G7 leaders' summit in Canada this month
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will be attending the upcoming G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis, Alta., later this month, thanking Prime Minister Mark Carney for his invitation. Modi has attended four G7 summits in person since 2019 and a fifth virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Glad to receive a call from Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada,' Modi said in a post on X. 'Congratulated him on his recent election victory and thanked him for the invitation to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis later this month.' The Prime Minister's Office confirmed an invitation had been extended in a readout regarding a phone call between the two leaders, stating the pair agreed to stay in contact and looked forward to meeting at the summit. Story continues below advertisement The readout said the two also discussed the relationship between Canada and India and agreed to 'continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy But Modi's attendance comes as relations between the two countries remain tense, amid mounting foreign interference concerns and continued investigations of the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia, which former prime minister Justin Trudeau publicly said was done by 'agents of the Indian government.' 6:03 India and Pakistan ceasefire aided by 'very proactive' negotiators including U.S. In October 2024, MPs on a parliamentary committee called for an emergency meeting on allegations of Indian foreign interference in Canada after six Indian diplomats and consular officials were expelled. That expulsion was 'in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the government of India.' The tensions had members of the Indian diaspora in Canada on edge, with families and students expressing concerns about travel if the conflict were to escalate to visa suspensions. Story continues below advertisement India has long denied any involvement in Nijjar's killing and accused Trudeau of pursuing a 'political agenda.' — with files from Global News and The Canadian Press
