The provincial government is funding a partnership between the Prairie Spirit School Division and Roadways Literacy Academy in what the Ministry of Education says is an effort to improve the literacy outcomes of local students.

Roadways Literacy Academy is a qualified independent school and tutoring studio in Saskatoon that teaches the Saskatchewan curriculum to students in Grades 1 to 8. The government is giving $170,000 to the effort with a pilot program that includes daily instruction in two classrooms combined with focused individual tutoring.

Meanwhile the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is condemning the government’s announcement saying taxpayer money is being siphoned off the public system and being given to private schools.

STF President Samantha Becottes describes the pilot project as yet another choice of government to privatize education. She says The Science of Reading methodology is not owned by Roadways Literacy, but it is a well-known teaching method that provided individualized instruction to students and has been cut back across the province due to years of underfunding.

The STF says from 2020-21 to 2024-25 funding to independent schools has increased by 79 percent, while funding to public schools has only increased by 13 percent over the same time period.