Manitoba high school students to soon learn financial math

Changes are coming to the way math is taught in grade nine classrooms. CTV’s Daniel Halmarson reports on what that could mean for young people.

Changes are coming to the way math is taught in Grade 9 classrooms.

In a couple years, the province is shifting focus to practical math, which means Manitoba students will be learning about budgets, mortgages, and how to manage debt.

For Deha Nazari, a student at University of Winnipeg Collegiate, these are subjects he’s not as familiar with despite his knowledge of other types of mathematics.

“I don’t know much about mortgages. Like, we didn’t get really taught about that in school,” he said.

“And I just know, like there are some credit scores that I need to keep high.”

Right now, financial literacy isn’t extensively taught in Manitoba high schools unless students opt to enter consumer math in Grade 10.

That’s why the province is preparing a new math curriculum for Grade 9 students, with a compulsory course focused on financial literacy.

“I think they’ll be learning about budgeting. They’ll be learning about making financial decisions,” said math teacher Mario Desmarais.

“I think they’ll be introducing a little bit of borrowing, saving, the idea of credit.”

Chelsea Arns, a tutor with 20 years experience, says teaching financial basics to all students is long overdue.

“I hear so many people who say, you know, I learned how to factor a polynomial in high school, but I didn’t learn how to do my taxes, I didn’t learn how to save for a house,” she said.

She says those valuable lessons help young people prepare for the real world.

“I think that opening up the dialogue around money, how to make it, how to spend it, how to invest it, how to donate it will really take a lot of the taboo away from it,” she said.

The province says the program will be piloted in select schools beginning September 2026.

It’s expected to be implemented throughout Manitoba by September 2027.