Reading, writing and arithmetic might be the building blocks for a good education, but after two and a half years of COVID-19 lockdowns, many students across Simcoe County fell behind.
Despite provincial and school board investment in tutoring across Simcoe County intended to help students catch up after more than two years of education upheaval, Collingwood and Simcoe County tutoring services are busting at the seams, according to local providers and school boards.
Rebecca Banfield owns a private tutoring service, Smarts Tutoring, in Collingwood and employs a team of tutors. As demand has gone up for her services coming out of COVID, she has hired more tutors to meet that need.
“Primarily, (we’re seeing more need) in the primary and junior grades in Grade 1 to 6,” said Banfield. “I’ve had a lot of feedback from parents that despite (their children) being below grade level in reading or writing, they don’t qualify for additional support that their school provides.”
“We’re finding that students are mostly looking for support for reading and writing,” she said.
Banfield attributes the lag to a combination of factors related to COVID-19, including the moving back and forth between in-person and virtual learning over the past two and a half years, and a lack of in-school resources.
In October, the Ministry of Education announced further funding for tutoring through Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up, which offers parents $200 or $250 per child to help offset tutoring costs.
However, Banfield says it’s not enough.
“$200 simply doesn’t cover the material the kids need to get caught up, and it doesn’t cover the time and expertise of private tutors,” she said. “I personally feel the government has put a responsibility on parents that they should not have. Instead of providing more funding, resources and materials in schools, they’re asking parents to find their own solutions outside of the school. I don’t think it’s sufficient.”
Banfield says she sees many parents feeling the strain, trying to figure out how to best support their children’s education.
“I feel for parents, because a lot of them are in a position right now where they don’t know how to support their child outside of the classroom,” she said. “They’re put in this position where they have to find support on their own and they’re not sure where to look.”
Earlier this year, the Simcoe County District School Board started a new tutoring support program through funds from the Ministry of Education. The board implemented a multi-pronged approach that saw investments for in-school tutoring, after-hours tutoring, and partnerships between the board and outside tutoring agencies.
“We hired about 200 tutors to provide support within our schools. We also were able to pay educators to provide small-group support outside of school hours,” said Superintendent of Education Chris Samis. “We were also able to partner with a number of community agencies throughout Simcoe County, some of which are in-person, and some virtual.”
As of this week, there are 26 board-approved tutoring providers across Simcoe County posted to the board’s website here. Approved providers are expected to follow SCDSB policies and standards, including focus of instruction, confirmation of vulnerable sector screening, insurance, reporting and billing, and are provided with funding by the public board.
Only one of the approved providers is based in the Collingwood area – Oxford Learning – and they are currently marked as full and are not accepting more students at this time through the board. However, Samis says there are a variety of providers on the list that offer virtual sessions and are accepting students if parents wish to go that route.
“That works for some families, but doesn’t work for some families,” he said. “There needs to be a wide variety of different opportunities to support the different circumstances that families find themselves in.”
Sarah Langelaan, who owns both Collingwood and Barrie’s Oxford Learning Centres, clarifies that while her board-funded spots are full, there are still private tutoring spaces available at both locations.
“Simcoe (County District School Board) funding was used up almost immediately. Both of my centres were filled up within a week of us posting,” said Langelaan. “All of my centres are just busting at the seams right now. There’s definitely a need. I hope the school boards see that and give us more money, because not everyone can afford (private tutoring).”
“Parents need to be squeaky wheels. That’s how things get done,” said Langelaan.
Langelaan says she’s seeing students of all ages who have fallen behind. She also says the most affected students are in the primary grades from Grade 1 to 2.
“Those are fundamental learning-to-read years,” she said. “We have a ton of students in Grades 3 to 5 who are just three to four years behind on reading.”
“This is brand new territory for us,” said Langelaan. “We took it on a first-come-first-serve basis, and then we started a waitlist.”
Langelaan estimates that the Collingwood and Barrie Oxford Learning locations each have a wait list of about 25 students, and growing.
When asked about the money from Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up, Langelaan also says the funding doesn’t address the full cost of the need.
“It’s not even enough to get an assessment to figure out where the kids are,” said Langelaan, adding that Oxford has given parents a discount on assessments for the time being but the amounts still aren’t enough to pay for meaningful tutoring.
“Most kids need a year to get caught up. $200 covers a month,” she said.
Back at the public school board, Samis says in-person tutoring spots are filling up to capacity in more rural areas such as Collingwood or Wasaga Beach.
“Agencies are generally full because the programs are being well-received by parents,” said Samis.
Of the 56,000 students at the SCDSB, as of this fall, about 1,300 elementary and 400 secondary students have accessed tutoring programs inside of schools, while approximately 1,300 elementary and 250 secondary students have accessed tutoring supports outside of schools through partner agencies in the community.
In total, approximately 3,250 SCDSB students have accessed tutoring supports through the new program board-wide.
“The uptake is strong. Families want their kids to be successful,” he said, calling the board’s approach “multi-dimensional.”
“The nice part is, it’s not a one-size-fits-all model,” he said. “It casts a wide net to be able to support as many students as possible.”
While the provincial funding originally was only planned to support extra tutoring through school boards until Dec. 31, Samis says the program was recently extended until March 31, 2023.
“Our hope is that it would continue, given how well it’s been received,” said Samis. “It’s been two difficult years. There’s no doubt there’s been an impact through COVID.”
