Literacy camps are giving 12-hundred students across Saskatchewan a chance to retain and improve their reading skills.

The 20 camps focus on Metis and First Nations students with help from parents and Elders to add cultural relevance to their activities.

The Northern Lights School Division is running 14 of the camps while other districts involved include Prince Albert Roman Catholic and Saskatchewan Rivers.

The Province has provided 500-thousand dollars in funding this year and more than 4.5 million over the past nine years for the camps meant to support the Education Sector Strategic Plan for 80-percent of students to read at or above grade level by 2020.

The Education Ministry has also given Frontier College 45-thousand dollars to run camps on the Ahtahkakoop and Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nations.