Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced March 3 that the federal government will fund a new initiative to ensure students from low-income families have access to post-secondary education.
The $20-million four-year investment into Pathways to Education Canada will go towards helping students who are financially at risk “make a successful transition into college and university.”
The program goals include targeting high school dropout rates and giving students the tools they need to graduate.
The funding will support the “Graduation Nation initiative, which is about taking the program nationally,” said Pathways to Education president and CEO David Hughes in a press release.
According to the Pathways to Education website, the program was originally implemented in Toronto’s Refgent Park community in 2001, and was created to “reduce poverty and its effects by lowering the high school dropout rate and increasing access to post-secondary education among disadvantaged youth in Canada.”
The program takes four approaches: academic, social, financial and advocacy. The various approaches include access to tutoring, group mentoring, specialty and career mentoring, and “financial support such as free bus tickets” to increase attendance.
The program provides bursaries of up to $4,000 per student towards post-secondary education.
According to the press release, “the program has expanded to 11 communities in four provinces” and anticipates expansion into at least seven provinces.